Photochroms of the 1890s

The Photochrom photographic process was developed in Zürich, Switzerland in the 1880s by the printing firm Orell Füssli (apparently still in business as a producer of "highly secure banknotes" and "identity documents" -- see link). The famous Detroit Publishing Company (née Detroit Photographic Company) purchased exclusive American rights to the process in 1897, which was highly prized prior to the advent of true color film owing to its ability to yield mass reproductions of tinted black and white photographs. Photochroms sold briskly throughout the 1890s. As you can see below, the most popular images were of exotic tourist destinations, crowded urban scenes and landscapes. Today, they fascinate because of the enormously high resolution of the photographic negatives, coupled with the color tinting of an era that we usually view in black and white. I recommend clicking on the photos to get a better of the enormous amount of detail these images contain.

The Photochrom process involved the transfer of black and white film negatives directly onto a series of lithographic plates, which were then inked with various colors matching the scene. Wikipedia provides some further technical info (perhaps more than you wanted to know). Below are some representative images from Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress Photochrom collection:

Mulberry Street in the Lower East Side of New York City, circa 1900.

Belgian milk peddlers, 1890s.

"Bedouin Chief of Palmyra," 1890s, from a photograph by Felix Bonfils.

Since these images are easily accesible on Wikimedia and Library of Congress sites I linked to above, I'll just restrict myself to pointing out a few neat details in larger photochroms:

A beautifully out of focus shot of two young men crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

Tough-looking children and wagon-drivers in Mulberry Street.

A medieval-era town hall in Saxony - this almost feels like peering into a fifteenth-century city high street.

And my favorite photochrom of all, a wonderfully crisp and evocative portrait of an Irish weaver.

A sampling of more old fashioned, extremely hi-res photographs can be found on the photoblog Shorpy. I've also posted previously about an early color photographic technique that was used to document pre-Soviet Russia to great effect. More technical details on the photochrom process can be found here. Finally, the website of NYC's Museum of Modern Art has an interactive website devoted to explaining the workings of lithography, for those interested in how color images were made before the advent of color film.

Early Victorian Ambrotypes

I had never heard of the ambrotype (from the Greek for "immortal impression") photographic process until quite recently, but it seems to have been a very popular medium in the middle decades of the nineteenth century -- cheaper than the more famous daguerrotype, and with a level of pictorial detail and richness of tone that I find really appealing. Below I'm posting a random sampling of some ambrotypes from the 1850s and 1860s that I found via a Google image search and the large Wikimedia Commons library of ambrotype images. Interestingly, unlike most other photographic media, ambrotypes are negatives - the colors were reversed by simply inserting a black velvet backing behind the original glass negative, like so:

As I wrote in my earlier posts on the Prokudin-Gorsky color photographs of pre-Soviet Russia and this very early color motion picture test, there's something really haunting and beautiful about seeing photographs from a vanished era. We're so used to thinking about the past as something hazy and unfamiliar, but via this medium we're able stare in the eye people who died before our grandparents were born. I'm especially struck by this 1860s ambrotype of "a war veteran and his wife," which may depict a soldier of the Crimean War. (Some images are huge - click for more detail).

Some other standouts, with dates and info when available:

Civil war soldier, 1860s?

Passmore Williamson, abolitionist. 1856-60. Source: Boston Public Library.

Ambrotype of three Brazilian students of Law School in Olinda, c.1858.
(Source:Os Fotógrafos do Império. Bia e Pedro Corrêa do Lago).

Ambrotype of João Maurício Wanderley, son of the Baron of Cotegipe, c.1858. Brazil.
(Source: VASQUEZ, Pedro. Dom Pedro II e a fotografia. Rio de Janeiro: Internacional Seguros).

As you may have noticed, almost every surviving ambrotype seems to have been embedded in an ornate frame. This last example takes the form to a ridiculous level - I don't think I've ever seen such a huge frame for such a tiny image. As detailed here, this amazing specimen is held by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and is probably a form of 'sailor's Valentine.' The shells are from the West Indies; the creator, provenance and the identity of the woman are unknown.

And finally, the image which led to me ambrotypes in the first place: Fanny Brawne, the muse of John Keats, recently depicted on film by Abbie Cornish in Jane Campion's Bright Star. (I can't recommend this movie highly enough for anyone into English period films - its very well done.) For those interested in the history of photography, a recent book by Harvard History of Science Professor Jimena Canales looks like an interesting read. A Tenth of a Second: A History examines the creation of machines able to measure tiny units of time in the 1850s (such as cameras) and its impact on society. I've only seen excerpts so far, but its on my reading list this winter.

Photographs of Imperial India

I found these beautiful and evocative photographs of India under British rule on a remarkable website created by a consortium of research libraries called the Digital South Asia Library. The photographs themselves appear to be from the British Library's Oriental and Indian Office Collection. I've added the original captions or collection titles when they've been provided.

"Lord Curzon's first tour in India, 1899"

Kabul beggars, c. 1879

Early 1870s, from an "album of cartes de visite portraits of Indian rulers and notables."

November, 1912: "Marquess of Reading Collection: 'Dhar and Mandu. Souvenir'"

'India - Groups. 1874'. Dancers and musicians, Kashmir province.

"Views of places proposed to be visited by Their Excellencies Lord & Lady Curzon during Autumn Tour 1902."

To those interested in learning more about the British empire in India, I can recommend Lawrence James' Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (2000) and David Gilmour's The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj (2006). The best novel on the subject of the Raj in decline must surely be E.M. Forster's brilliant A Passage to India, though I'm surely no expert...

Image of the Week 1: Bathing Machine

I love this late Victorian postcard of a woman leaving a 'bathing machine,' a now-forgotten wagon-like vehicle that was wheeled a discrete distance out to sea so that ladies of quality could swim without showing a scandalous amount of flesh to the general public. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

I'm also quite fond of the rather surreal caption: "5505 DONT BE AFRAID." Reminds me of Ed Ruscha.