Lumière Autochrome: Early 20th-Century Color Photography (38 Photos)

Although motion pictures gained massive popularity after their invention in the 1890s—drawing ticket-buying audiences around the world to black-and-white and hand-tinted film screenings—Louis and Auguste Lumière famously dismissed cinema as a passing fad and turned their attention to color photography instead. As it turned out, their new venture proved just as revolutionary.

In 1903, the Lumière brothers patented a pioneering process for capturing full-color images called Autochrome Lumière, officially bringing it to market in 1907. Unlike the equally innovative color processes developed by Adolf Miethe and Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, Autochrome enjoyed widespread commercial success and remained the world's premier, accessible color photography method for nearly three decades.





This gallery features Autochrome photographs from the 1910s, with original plates preserved in the archives of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.



1. Palace of Horticulture, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915





2. Dancer in Egyptian Costume, 1915



3. Marketplace, 1910



4. Cowgirl, 1910



5. Children in Medieval Costumes, 1910



6. Native American, 1910



7. Men Playing Cards, 1915



8. Children, 1918



9. Photographer Charles Zoller with a Bicycle, 1920



10. Woman in a Gold Outfit, 1915



11. Man with Two Dogs, 1915



12. Young Girl Among Carnations, 1915



13. Portrait of a Woman, 1915



14. Orchids, 1907–1932



15. Woman beside a Flowering Bush, 1915



16. Crowded Beach, 1915



17. Still Life, 1915



18. Silver Lake, 1907–1932



19. Little Girl with Her Doll Collection, 1910



20. Louis Lumière with Microscope and Test Tubes, 1910



21. Woman in Oriental Dress, 1915



22. Children in Jones Park, 1918



23. Letchworth State Park, 1917



24. Woman in Pink, 1915



25. Schoolchildren on Oxford Street, 1910



26. Two Sisters and a Toddler Dressed as Uncle Sam, 1917



27. Woman in a Red Dress, 1915



28. Child, 1915



29. Wall Street, 1915



30. Pawnbroker, 1910



31. Woman Posed as a Sphinx, 1910



32. Foolish House, 1910



33. Arnett YMCA, 1907–1932



34. Woman Peeling Vegetables, 1910



35. Seneca Pool, 1924



36. Married Couple, 1910



37. Family Outing in the Countryside, 1915