Otto Pfenninger’s Early Color Photos (1906)

Otto Pfenninger (5 April 1855 – 20 March 1929) was a founding member of the Swiss Photographers Association (1886) and a pioneer of colour photography. He moved to Brighton, England where he developed his career as a photographer. In 1906, Pfenninger built a special camera to his own design using...

Colorized photos of Ellis Island immigrants (1910s)

Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much...

Alfonse Van Besten: Autochrome Photos (1910s)

Alfonse Van Besten (1865-1926)  was a painter and took full advantage of the possibilities of the new colour process. One can see that many of his autochromes were taken with a “painterly eye” e.g. Musing (Mrs.Van Besten) and Symphony in white. It was evident that he had a very good...

Edward S. Curtis: Indians of North America

Beginning in 1900, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) set out on a monumental quest to create an unprecedented, comprehensive record of the Indians of North America. The culmination of his 30-year project led to his magnum opus, The North American Indian, a twenty-volume, twenty-portfolio set of handmade books containing a selection...

Russia Before the Revolution (1907-1915)

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944) became photographically renowned in Russia for a color portrait of Leo Tolstoy. It was this fame that, in 1909, brought him to the attention of Tsar Nicholas II. Prokudin-Gorsky's subsequent meeting with the tsar and the tsar's family was to be the pivotal moment in his life:...