AUTOCHROME

The Lumière brothers, born in France in 1862 and 1864, grew up playing and learning in their father's photography studio, where he not only took photos but also produced black-and-white blue sensitive photographic plates that where very similar to the ones we make these days with Zebra Dry Plates. By 1882, after a severe economic crisis, the family business was on the brink of collapse. However, the return of 20-year-old Auguste from military service marked a turning point. With his brother Louis, they developed new machines necessary for the automated production of photographic...

Today, we take colours for granted. Capturing the vibrant hues of nature in photographs is so effortless in the digital age that we rarely ponder how it works and how it came to be. My interest in the history of colour photography was non-existent until I encountered an autochrome plate. Its beauty and mystery captivated me instantly. The colour screen, a mosaic of microscopic dyed grains of potato starch, creates a colour photograph. I couldn’t fathom how something that sounded so simple could work so brilliantly. When choosing a topic...

GLASS BASE Before I start talking about 1st varnish I have to dedicate some words to support (glass) which serves as a base on which all the layers making up autochrome are coated. Many of you probably question what is there to talk about glass? When used for autochromes it serves not just as a support but it actually plays a role during exposure. Usually at lets say wet-plate or dry-plate photography plate is turned towards the lens in such a way that emulsion is directly pointing to the light source. With autochrome the...

Why and how? For me it all started with this question back in 2017 when I applied my theme for bachelor’s degree. It didn’t know much about the autochrome before that besides that it was one of the first colour photography techniques. I started my research on the internet reading everything I could find about autochrome and I was in shock because there was almost nothing written on this the topic. My main source of informations at the time where blogs that I came across often by luck. They at least gave me an...