In the early 1900s, the world was almost exclusively documented in black and white. Color photography existed, but it was extremely complex and not widely available. This changed in 1907 with the public introduction of a new technology called Autochrome Lumière.
Invented in France by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière, the same pioneers behind motion pictures, the Autochrome process was the first commercially successful and relatively simple method for creating true color photographs. For the first time, photographers could capture the world as they saw it, in full color, using a single photographic plate.
The secret to the Autochrome plate was a thin layer of microscopic grains of potato starch. Millions of these tiny grains, dyed in three primary colors—red-orange, green, and blue-violet—were mixed together and spread evenly across a glass plate. The tiny spaces between the colored starch grains were filled with a dark powder, like carbon black. This random assortment of colored dots acted as a filter. A layer of black-and-white photographic emulsion was then applied over this color screen.
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When a photographer took a picture, light from the scene passed through the filter of dyed potato starch grains before hitting the emulsion. During a special development process, the black-and-white image was reversed into a positive one. The result was a transparent glass plate that, when held up to the light, revealed a full-color image. The colors were rendered in a style often compared to the Pointillist paintings of artists like Georges Seurat, with a soft, dreamlike quality.
Photographers around the world quickly adopted the new technology. One of the most ambitious projects using Autochrome was started by a wealthy French banker named Albert Kahn. In 1909, he launched a project called “The Archives of the Planet.” Kahn hired a team of photographers and sent them to more than 50 countries with the mission of documenting life around the globe in color.
Over the next two decades, these photographers created a stunning visual record of humanity. They took pictures in Paris, capturing flower vendors along the street and the Eiffel Tower. They traveled to rural Ireland, documenting traditional village life. In Vietnam, they photographed ancient temples and people in their daily routines. In Morocco, they captured vibrant marketplaces and cityscapes.
