100 Years of Autochrome
“100 Years of Autochrome ” — Tenth exhibition of Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography.
Autochrome Lumiére was the first commercially successful process of color photography. It was patented by the Lumière brothers in France in 1903, and was produced commercially from 1907 until about 1935. The photographs are large glass slides, where the color picture is produced by an optical trick, which combines a black and white photographic emulsion and a color mosaic. The resulting photographs surprise by their beautiful colors (even if they are not completely true-to-life), and thus they soon became popular as an artistic, documentary and scientific medium. This technique remained the principal color photography process available, until it was superseded by the advent of color film during the mid-1930s.
Our exhibition introduces works of Czech autochromists such as Karel Šmirous, Richard Brunner Dvořák, and Josef Jindřich Šechtl, and other autochromists from around the world. It also introduces us to the techniques of early color photography, and their problems.
The WWW version of the exhibition originally prepared for Šechtl and Voseček Museum of Photography consist only of the works of Czech photographers. Excellent presentation of autochrome in the world can be found, for instance, at www.autochrome.com or http://www.luminous-lint.com.
From the opening day:
Credits
The exhibition contains reproductions of Autochromes from the following collections and museums:
- The Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA
- The Moravian Gallery, Brno
- Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague
- National Technical Museum, Prague
- National Museum, Czech Museum of Music, The Bedřich Smetana Museum, Prague
- Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography, Tábor and many private collections, including those of Mark Jacobs, Jindra Mikulíčková, Tomáš Rasl, Alan Scheibli a Pavel Scheufler.
We are grateful for consultation and cooperation from Mark Jacobs, Rudolf Jung, Jindra Mikulíčková, Jan Mlčoch, Petr Kliment, Jiří Kröhn, Tomáš Rasl, Alan Scheibli, Pavel Scheufler.
We would like to thank to John Titchener for English translations, Jakub Troják for typography, and Jindřiška Bumerlová for editing of Czech posters.
This Exhibition was prepared by Jan Hubička, Eva Hubičková and Marie Šechtlová.
WWW version was prepared by Jan Hubička.
We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the French Embassy, the Town of Tábor, and the South Bohemian Region.