Autochrome colour photography was developed in 1903 by the Lumiere brothers in France, and involved the process of creating a filter from placing tiny starch potato grains onto a sheet of glass, and dying them red, blue and green (with black charcoal being used to fill in the gaps between the colours), before coating the entire sheet with an emulsion. The 3 primary colours, when subjected to light, would create a range of different colours which would reflect the accurate colours of a real life object. In order to counteract the blue sensitivity of the emulsion, the exposures were made using a yellow filter, giving the final image it’s distinctive slightly yellow tone.
Source: Anon, Couple with a motor car, c.1910, auto-chrome, notice the slightly yellow undertones caused by the yellow filter.
Source: Baron de Meyer, Flower study, 1908, autochrome – this image is a reflection of the type of subjects that were often used in the early days of auto-chrome photography, including fruits, flowers and vases.
The first colour image taken in Jersey was produced by the founding father of Societe Jersiaise, Emile F. Guiton, in 1904. Guiton was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and made use of the newly developed Autochrome technique to produce coloured images of vases, flowers and fruits.
Emile F. Guiton, early 1900’s – this auto-chrome is an experimentation by Guiton to look into the ways colour interacts within an image.
The ability for photographers to take coloured autochrome images was revolutionary, and many people commented on the depth of the images along with the vibrance of the colours. in 1908, the Photographic News was quoted as saying:
“when the effect of relief is joined to a life-like presentation in colour the effect is quite startling in its reality. It is not easy to imagine what the effect of anything of this kind would have been on our ancestors and witchcraft would have been but a feeble, almost complimentary term, for anything so realistic and startling“
This quote reflects the opinions of photographers towards the development of the auto-chrome, and allows for us to grasp an understanding of how revolutionary it was that photographers could now take images and photographs in colour that almost perfectly reflected real life. A huge difference from the common black and white photography.