The desire for color photos has prevailed over the world of photography from the very beginning. What were the early techniques? And when did color become accessible to everyone? This volume traces the exciting path from the medium’s beginnings in the nineteenth century to widely used analog color photography with the first Kodak color slide film in 1936.

The desire for color photos has prevailed over the world of photography from the very beginning. What were the early techniques? And when did color become accessible to everyone? This volume traces the exciting path from the medium’s beginnings in the nineteenth century to widely used analog color photography with the first Kodak color slide film in 1936.

Photography’s various coloring processes opened up a radiant new cosmos. The Albertina’s unique collection sheds light on the complex topic of historical color photos. It ranges from early colorized one-offs to the emergence of mass-produced color photographs on a positive-negative basis. The numerous techniques, many of them little-known, and the resulting diverse applications reveal a revolution across our entire visual culture.