"Illustrations In Full Color"

[John Evicci]

Regarding the "full color illustrations" in issues from the 1920s, does anyone know if those are actual color photographs or colorized B&W photos? Sometimes they look colorized to me, other times they look like actual color photos. Sometimes they even look like they could even be paintings based on photographs!

[Wildbunch]

It is both. Even before 1920, Prokudin-Gorsky did the colo photographs for the czar of Russia to show his empire.

[George Thomas Wilson]

John,

In my series of 100-year-old reviews, I have been documenting the photographs in each issue, noting if they are B&W photos, photogravures, colorized B&W photos, or actual color photos.  I started with the Jan. 1915 issue, and all color illustrations have been paintings, or colorized B&W photos up to the March 1921 issues which contains actual Autochrome color photographs.  Interestingly, the April 1921 issue has colorized B&W photos again.  There may have been color photos in issues before 1915, but the ones in the March 2021 issue are the oldest I've found.

Yours in Collecting,

Tom

[John Evicci]

Thanks for the info!  How do you know, though, what's what?

[George Thomas Wilson]

Mostly by eye.  The colorized B&W photos are very pastel and soft, with no bright colors or sharp edges.  Also, in the credits for the colorized pictures say things like: Photograph by So-and-so.  The credits for the color photos in the March 1921 issue specifically states: Autochrome by [the photographer].  Autochrome is an early color photography process.

[John Evicci]

Aha!  I was wondering what Autochrome was.  Also, Ektachrome.

[George Thomas Wilson]

John,

Here is the start of the Wikipedia entry for "Ektachrome":

 Ektachrome is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still, and motion picture films previously available in many formats, including 35 mm and sheet sizes to 11×14 inch size. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that became familiar to many readers of National Geographic, which used it extensively for color photographs for decades in settings where Kodachrome was too slow.