Hand colored photographs then and
now
Hand colored photography is nearly as
old as photography itself.
The
first hand colored daguerreotypes appeared in the early 1840s, just
a few years after the first photographs were made. Obviously, people
wanted color to have a role in this new imaging process from the
very beginning.
Through the rest of the 19th century, hand
coloring was virtually the only way to obtain a color photograph.
The process quickly spread through Europe, the Americas and even
into Japan, where some of the most sophisticated work would appear.
The Japanese excelled at hand coloring photographs and lantern
slides, drawing on the same skills and aesthetic that produced their
fine watercolors and wood prints.
In America, hand
coloring was frequently used by landscape photographers in the
West. Well-known photographers like Carleton Watkins (1829 - 1916), one
of the early photographers of Yosemite, and Fred Kiser (1878-1955),
who photographed Oregon landmarks like the Columbia River and Crater
Lake, both issued their work both in black and white and in hand
colored versions.
The outpouring of these images both served
to record and helped drive the nation's move into the
frontier.
As the 20th century progressed, though, hand
coloring in the United States and Europe became more and more
identified with commercial photography. Unlike in Japan, in Europe
and the Americas the process had always been slightly suspect,
bordering somehow on kitsch; early on, for example, the French
Society of Photography banned hand coloring from its
exhibitions.
Beginning in about the 1970s, hand coloring made
a resurgence in the United States. It was adopted by a number of
fine art photographers and became a staple of certain portrait
studios. The look is also frequently used (though it's usually
digitally generated) in advertising these days.
My own hand
colored work grows out of a fascination with the interplay between
the cool Modernist process of photography and the more personal art
of painting. Hand coloring seems a natural for the subdued palette
of the Northwest landscape, and I find that --- unlike some
practitioners in the recent hand coloring revival --- I'm drawn to a
subtle, almost minimalist approach to color.
Over the past
century and a half, hand coloring has used a variety of mediums,
from dyes to watercolors to oil paints. The traditional "hand
colored" look comes from the use of Marshall's oil colors, which are
highly pigmented transparent oil paints that are still sold
today.
Though I have used oil colors in the past, I prefer
acrylics now for all the usual reasons, from speed and permanence to
safety.
My work is all printed on old-fashioned fiber-based
paper in a traditional darkroom and should, with proper care, last a
lifetime.
