Oldest known color photos
Wow, and you thought your parent’s photo album was old…
Oddee has an interesting collection of some of the world’s oldest photographs, ranging from the 1800s, to WWI&II. Although I found a slight error in what they claim is the oldest known color photography.
This photo was taken in 1872, and Oddee called it the earliest color photo in the world.
Before the Autochrome process was perfected in France, this photograph of a landscape in Southern France was taken. No, it is not hand-tinted. This is a color-photograph. (Note: It was published in a Time/Life Book entitled “Color” in 1972, “courtesey of George Eastman House, Paulus Lesser.”) You are looking at the birth of color photography seven years after the American Civil War. 130 years ago this view of Angouleme, France, was created by a “subtractive” method. This is the basis for all color photography, even today. It was taken by Louis Ducos du Hauron who proposed the method in 1869. It was not until the 1930’s that this method was perfected for commercial use.
However, I found a color photo taken over 10 years earlier by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.
But other than that little snafu, there’s some nice shots from 1909 Russia and WWI.
Oddee has many more interesting vintage color photos to look at.
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