10 Of the Oldest Color Photographs Depicting the World in Autochrome A Century Ago

Speaking of old photos, one usually thinks in terms of black and white. Rarely do we think of vintage photos in color. But you will be surprised to know that color photographs are quite old too and made an appearance at the beginning of the century. Thus the history of color photos is a hundred years old. Take a look at the world’s oldest color photos taken 100 years ago.

1 Christina in Red, 1913

If you wanted to shoot a color photo before 1907, you would have to color it instead with various dyes and pigments suited for photographic cards and paper. It was two French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere who invented the Auto chrome Lumiere. They used dyed grains of potato starch and light sensitive emulsion to produce remarkable photographs that did not require added colorization.

Image Source: www.sohacdn.com

2 Flower Street Vendor, Paris, 1914

The process of Autochrome Lumiere became extremely popular among photographers even though it was difficult to manufacture and also somewhat expensive. However, the process was widely preferred among amateur photographers.

Image Source: www.pinimg.com

3 Heinz and Eva on the Hillside, 1925

The Autochrome Lumiere technique was even used to publish one of the world's first books of color photography. As you can see in the photograph, the colors are extremely vintage but all this was soon to change with a new entrant into the world of photography, Kodachrome film!

Image Source: www.amazonaws.com