116 Of The Oldest Color Photos Showing What The World Looked Like 100 Years Ago
When you think of old photos or historical pictures, you naturally think in terms of black and white, but as you can see from these stunning vintage photos from the turn of the 20th century, color pictures have been around for a lot longer than you think.
Before 1907, if you wanted a color photograph, you (well, a professional colorist) basically had to color it using different dyes and pigments. Still, two French brothers called Auguste and Louis Lumière revolutionized all that with a game-changing process that they called the Autochrome Lumière. Using dyed grains of potato starch and light-sensitive emulsion, they could produce color in vintage photography without the need for additional colorization. Despite being difficult to manufacture and somewhat expensive, the process was very popular among amateur photographers. As a result, one of the world's first books of color photography was published using the Autochrome Lumière technique.
The brothers revolutionized the world of color photography until Kodak took things to a whole new level with the invention of Kodachrome film in 1935, a lighter and more convenient alternative that quickly made the Autochrome Lumière obsolete (although its popularity continued in France up until the 1950s). Kodachrome was also eventually overtaken by the rise of digital photography (Kodak stopped manufacturing Kodachrome in 2009), which is now by far the world's most popular way to take pictures. Still, modern advances in photographic technology wouldn't have been possible without the hard work of early pioneers like Auguste and Louis Lumière. Scroll down for a collection of stunning historical photos in color using their groundbreaking technique.
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Flower Street Vendor, Paris, 1914
Heinz And Eva On The Hillside, 1925
Sisters Sitting In A Garden Tying Roses Together, 1911
The Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1914
Wow! This photo is most remarkable for the shot of the old Trocadero palace, seen through the tower's arch! It hasn't been there for 80 years.
A Girl Holds A Doll Next To Soldiers' Equipment In Reims, France, 1917
Among The First Coloured Pictures Ever Taken By Louis Lumière, 1907
Charlie Chaplin, 1918
Christina In Red, 1913
Outdoor Market, Paris, 1914
There are still street markets like this in Paris if you know where to look. They aren't all that hard to find, either. If you see vans parked on the street that have spectacular graffiti all over them, there's a market nearby. The graffiti on the vans gets competitive and some of it is spectacular.
Two Girls In Oriental Costume, 1908
Can people really stop with the appropriation, it's clothing !!! Should we stop eating food from different cultures or watch different
Eva And Heinz On The Shore Of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, C. 1927
Sweden, Near Gagnef (Mother And Daughter In Traditional Clothes), 1910
Else Reading By The Nile, 1920
Woman And Girl By A Brook, 1910
Apan (Young Samurai), 1912
Oh the changes he would have seen...to go from a society like the outfit he has on represents, to WW2 where he might have been an officer in his 40s, to the resurgence of Japan in the 70s (if he lived).
Autochrome Of Else Paneth On A Camel, 1913
Japan, Kyoto, 1912
The girl in the middle... for a split second I thought her obi belt was see through
Mother Of Seven Making Fringes For Knitted Shawls, Galway, Ireland, 29 May 1913
Louis Lumière's Daughter And Her Dolls, 1913
Porte Saint Denis, Paris, 1914
If you go to Google Maps and find the site, most if not all of the buildings are the same even the older looking house through the arch.
Joan In Red Riding Hood Cape With Basket, 1907
Autochrome Of A Young Girl, 1910
Giant Oranges,paris, 1914
Very interesting. I thought they only did weird inflatable stuff recently!
Egypt, Giza, 1913
They were right : the old egyptians did remodel the head to a pharaoh's head and it was probably a lions head first. Compare the erosion of the body with that of the head.
Galway, Ireland 1 May 1913
An Autochrome Of Etheldreda Janet Laing Daughter In A Garden, Holding A Brightly Coloured Bunch Of Pink Flowers, 1908
Mongolia, Near Ulaanbaatar (Buddhist Lama), 1913
Traditional Irish Knitwear, An Spidéal, Galway, Ireland 1 May 1913 (Left), 14 Year Old Girl From The Claddagh Wearing Traditional Claddagh Dress. Galway, Ireland, 26th May 1913 (Right)
Lunch Of A French Soldier In Front Of A Damaged Library, 1st April 1917
Metro, Paris, 1914
Seems like maybe this photo might be later than 1914. My understanding is that the Adrian helmet was not introduced until 1915 (at least two of the soldiers in this photo seem to be wearing the helmets) and the all horizon blue colour seen here was not introduced until late 1914 (at the outbreak of the war French poilus were wearing red trousers, naturally this made them far too easy to see and contributed to heavier casualties)
The Family At The Lake, 1925
Hey, isn't this again our Eva and Heinz on vocation in the Alps? Not just some nameless "a family" ))
Palace Of Horticulture, Pan American Exposition, 1915
Mrs. Warburg, 1915
Market Stalls Outside An Egyptian Ruin, 1913
