Early Colour Photographs From Around The World: 1911-1927

~ beetleypete

I found these early photographs taken using colour processing of film. They are not ‘colourised’ later, but actual colour prints. I had no idea that the ‘Autochrome’ technique existed over 100 years ago.

Paris, 1914.

A Mongolian girl in traditional dress, 1913.

The Pyramids and The Sphinx. Cairo, 1914.

A German family in the Black Forest, 1911.

A Buddhist Lama in Beijing, China. 1913.

Jaipur, India. 1926.

Girl in a kimono. Japan, 1927.

A family outside their apartment in Paris, 1913.

Religious leaders in Lahore, Pakistan, (Then still in India) 1914.

Lyon, France. 1920.

Inner Mongolia, 1912.

A market in Serbia, 1913.

Ethnic Armenians in Istanbul, Turkey. 1914.

Serbian women in traditional dress, 1913.

A market in Sarajevo, Bosnia. 1913.

Girls in Poland, 1914.

40 thoughts on “Early Colour Photographs From Around The World: 1911-1927”

  2. (1) Four French legs firmly planted in the ground. Two French arms surrendering in the background.
    (2) A lot of upward pointing! (Is this a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?)
    (3) I see a pyramid and a sphinx. Is the Stargate nearby?
    (4) I’m not patient enough to watch seeds in the Black Forest germinate.
    (5) I’m only familiar with a Peruvian llama. (The Emperor’s New Groove)
    (6) “My camel smokes cigarettes!”
    (7) “I’d like to paint you wearing that kimono, Lisa. Can you smile enigmatically?”
    (8) “The door is open. Our French bulldog doesn’t bite…much.”
    (9) “We’re ankle deep in religion, so we don’t wear shoes and socks.”
    (10) After he got tired of fishing, Ponce de Lyon left for Florida. (He brushed up on his Spanish first.)
    (11) Did you hear about the giant from Mongolia? His nickname was Mongoliath.
    (12) The markets in Serbia are found in suburbia.
    (13) In the book, Jackalope Tails, a farmer claimed that his tan bull turkey had horns.
    (14) I’m not sure, but I think one of the Serbian women is playing with a Rubik’s Cube.
    (15) Overheard:
    “Knock! Knock!”
    “Who’s there?”
    “Sara.”
    “Sara who?”
    “Sarajevo in the house?”
    “Try the Miljacka River. Jevo’s gone fishing.”
    (16) Where have all the flowers gone? Girls have picked them, every one!

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  5. Some great images, Pete I love the addition of some colours …in some countries, not much has changed regarding dress and others have made great advances and have constant change…many people still wear traditional clothing here although many of the young don’t apart from a few items I’m guessing over the years the blue jeans and t/shirts will rule…x

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  8. These photos are amazing. I love the colours, they look so natural. The Bavarians especially interested me as my family immigrated from Germany to Canada in 1911. They probably dressed similarly.

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  10. Pingback: Early Colour Photographs From Around The World: 1911-1927 | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  11. These are quite lovely. It’s good to see people in their traditional dress, pre blue jeans and fast food and ugly hoardings with adverts and/or propaganda. They had different sorts of problems then. Somehow I don’t think modern life is really an improvement. I so wish I had managed to get to Mongolia!

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    1. I went to Soviet-era Mongolia, a long flight both ways from Moscow (6 hours each way) for an overnight trip to Ulan Bator. (Which was very industrial in the centre, at least around our hotel.) They took us outside the city the next morning to see ‘Traditional Mongolian activities’. That consisted of a lot of fast horse-riding, then sitting in a yurt being being offered curdled Yak’s milk from a communal bowl. One ‘excursion’ I should have avoided! We flew back to Moscow that afternoon.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    2. Yes, government run tourist sites are to be avoided. In New Guinea we went to the highlands where we encountered “Mud Men Inc.” at least that’s what we called it. Sort of like instant antiques.

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      1. I think those Mongolians actually lived in that village of yurts. But suspect their only income was the pittance paid to them to perform to supposedly ‘serious’ Communist-sympathising tourists. (As we were then) I didn’t drink the fermented Yak’s milk, by the way, just passed the bowl to the next person.

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