Archives of the Planet

Abs pointed me to a page of Rare Color Photography of 1900s Paris. The images were taken with Autochrome Lumière technology, a process using dyed starch grains as color filters. I was struck by the coloring, so saturated and textured yet somehow not garish, and it was fascinating to see color photographs from early in the century. I usually think of these times in grey and sepia.


Cinéma Aubert Palace, 1925
Autochrome by Leon Gimpel
Image via paris1914.com

I dug more deeply into autochromes when I had time. I followed the images to their source, paris1914.com. There I was introduced to Albert Kahn and his "Archives de la Planète" project:

In 1909 Kahn travelled with his chauffeur and photographer, Alfred Dutertre to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of the journey. This prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth. He appointed Jean Brunhes as the project director, and sent photographers to every continent to record images of the planet using the first colour photography, autochrome plates, and early cinematography. Between 1909 and 1931 they collected 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These form a unique historical record of 50 countries, known as "The Archives of the Planet". --Wikipedia

An early 20th century visual archive of the Earth! In living color!

You can find a good selection of small images via the clickable map on the Albert Kahn Museum website. I could play with it all day, and find inspiration for any number of projects.


La marquise Tokugawa, Cap Martin, France, 1930
Autochrome (inv. C 1251)
Image via the Musée Albert-Kahn website


Taj Mahal, Agra, India, December 25-27, 1913
Autochrome by Stéphane Passet (inv. A 4 251)
Image via the Musée Albert-Kahn website


Three cowgirls, Calgary, Canada, May 14,1926
Autochrome by Frédéric Gadmer (inv. A 49066)
Image via Musée Albert-Kahn website

The BBC did a lengthy television series on the Archives of the Planet: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn.   I'd rather cozy up with a book I can flip through at my pace, though.

There is a companion volume to the BBC series, but it is much more readily available in the UK than in the USA. However, also by author David Okuefuna is The Dawn of the Color Photograph: Albert Kahn's Archives of the Planet , which I will be pursuing right away.