“Color gives photography the charm of reality.”
~ Louis Lumière (1864 - 1948)
I’ve always been fascinated by the photochrom process of the late 19th century. Before color film, artists used this method to bring black-and-white photographs to life through instinct and imagination — layering hand-colored, reversed lithographic plates one by one to build a final, vibrant image. The artist decided the mood, the atmosphere, and how far to drift between the real and the surreal. And because many of these makers remain unknown, the story behind each print is now left to us to imagine.