AO2 Explore Ideas, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Emile F Guiton

Leave a comment

Emile Guiton was a prominent Jersey photographer born in 1879. Throughout his career he was responsible for documenting Island Life as well as helping to found the Societe Jersaie photo archive, where He served on the executive committee as a joint honorary secretary and he was also the curator of the museum and the editor of their annual bulletin

Guiton noticed throughout his life that history was changing dramatically on the island and he therefore set out to document this historical change in as much detail as possible. He was one of the first early photographers to experiment with auto chrome color.

Auto Chrome Lumiere

Auto Chrome Lumiere is one of the earliest methods of colour photography and was patented in 1903 by the french Lumiere Brothers. It was the main means of capturing images in colours before the development of coloured film in the early 1930s. The original creator of Auto chrome was another french photographer called Louis Ducos Du Haron.He was the first known photographer to experiment with the technique of colour additives.

Auto Chrome Process

The Auto Chrome Process involves a glass plate, which is covered on one side by a random pattern of microscopic grains of dyed potato starch, The grains consist of red-orange, Green and blue-violet colors, Similar to the RGB of red green and blue primary colors found in the visual processors of many modern day computer screens. These colored grains of starch essentially act as colour filters, while lampblack, a type of dark material created from the incomplete combustion of fuel materials such as coal and oil, Fills the gaps while a black and white panchromatic silver halide emulsion is coated on the top as a layer.

The Auto chrome would then be loaded into the camera with the glass side of the slide facing the Lens, Meaning the light passed through the Mosaic colour layer before reaching the emulsion. An orange filter was used in the camera to block out ultra violet light as the emulsion was very sensitive to purple and blue colours. Autochromes required a long exposure time, so therefore they were not suitable for photographing moving subjects

Early Auto Chrome Images

Image result for autochrome photography
This image of a french police officer sat at a water pump in a french cobbled street was taken by a photographer employed by Albert Kahn. Kahn sent out 50 photographers armed with auto chrome cameras across the globe to photograph subjects such as the collapse of the Ottoman-Hungarian empire, The last traditional Celtic villages in Ireland and events of the early stages of the first world war. I like the image as it has a minimal amount of colour on a whole, which makes us focus more on the key element of the police officer in the foreground. I also find that the low saturation gives off quite a solemn feel, especially due to the fact that this photograph was taken in the early days of the first world war
Image result for autochrome photography
Here is another early autochrome. This image depicts a late 19th/ early 20th century car. At this time, cars were extremely expensive and seen as a luxury that only the upper class had access to. It is highly likely that this photograph was commissioned by the owners of the car. The range of colour that the autochrome could pick up is highlighted well in this image, with a vast mix of blues and greens along with some reds
Image result for autochrome photography
This image originates from early 20th century America and is a photograph of a group of young children stood watching through the bars of an elephant enclosure in a zoo. What strikes me about this image is the vibrance and range of colour on display in terms of the outfits of the children as well as the background greens of the trees and clues of the skies

Emile Guitons Works

Below are some autochrome works produced by Guiton. He mainly chose to picture flowers as he found these a great way to showcase the colour and beauty of nature as well as the fact that they were non moving subjects

Image result for emile guiton autochrome
Image result for emile guiton autochrome
Image result for emile guiton autochrome

Leave a Reply