On Friday 16th October, I had the honour of attending the Victoria and Albert Museum’s roundtable event exploring early colour photography at the V&A South Kensington. The invite-only event brought together around 15 curators, researchers, doctoral students and other scholars with backgrounds in early photographic processes. The event provided an opportunity to network and exchange knowledge surrounding the Royal Photographic Society collections, which the V&A began managing in 2017.
The RPS Collections
We reviewed several examples of early colour photography from the RPS collection, which comprises upwards of 270,000 photographs and negatives. The photographs varied considerably in their appearance, reflecting the sheer variety of experimental processes and materials developed to reproduce colour during this period.
The most well-known piece was Tartan Ribbon, photographed by Thomas Sutton for James Clerk Maxwell’s pioneering three-colour photographic demonstration in 1861. The image was originally reproduced through three overlapping projections of colour-filtered light. Of particular local interest was Sutton himself, an internationally recognised photographic pioneer who patented an early single-lens reflex (SLR) camera and ran a photographic studio in St. Brelade, Jersey.
We also explored Colin Axon’s photographic collection, a remarkable collection which Colin developed throughout his life and donated to the V&A in 2022. Notable pieces include material from the archives of Dr Kurt von Holleben, who played a leading role in developing Agfa’s early colour photographic processes, including Agfa-Farbenplatte, Agfacolor and Agfacolor Ultra.
Finally, we had the opportunity to explore the Photography Centre, the Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery and the Kusuma Gallery, where the librarian showed us a selection of publications exploring the subject.
Of particular relevance to the SJPA were the examples of early autochrome photography, a process also represented in our own collections. The visit provided a valuable opportunity to explore the development of this pioneering technique and consider the challenges of preserving and making these fragile photographs accessible.
Colour photography at the SJPA
The Société are proud to care for Jersey’s oldest colour photograph, an autochrome produced by former SJ president and Membre d’Honneur Emile Guiton and his older brother, Stanley Guiton. It features a vase upon a pedestal stand holding a mix of flowers, including daisies and chrysanthemums.
The autochrome process combines thousands of microscopic, dyed grains of colour with a light-sensitive emulsion upon a glass support to create colour photographs with their iconic pointillist effect. Evident physical damage and vivid, tell-tale green spotting can be seen dotted around the plate. The green dye used is particularly sensitive to water damage and thus leaks into other areas of the image.
The dyes in these photographs are so light-sensitive that the originals are unlikely ever to be put on public display. This made discussions at the V&A surrounding the creation of faithful facsimiles particularly relevant to our own collections. The V&A had beautiful reproductions of Axon’s autochromes on display, demonstrating how these delicate photographs can be shared with the public while protecting the originals.
All of Emile Guiton’s autochromes and a selection of our photographic albums are available to view in high resolution on our Digital Collections catalogue: https://collections.societe.je/archive/photographs?
The rest of our photographic collections are available on our shared catalogue with Jersey Heritage: https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/societe-jersiaise-photographic-archive/
References
- Cahill, Patrick, The Autochromes of Emile Guiton, Société Jersiaise Annual Bulletin, 32 (3) 2019: 641 – 651.
- V&A Royal Photographic Society Collection, vam.ac.uk, n.d., <https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/vampa-royal-photographic-society-collection>.
- The Colin Axon Collection of Early Colour Photography, The Photographic Collections Network, n.d.,<https://www.photocollections.org.uk/collections/colin-axon-collection-early-colour-photography>.
By Rochelle Merhet, Photographic Archivist, SJPA
