Autochrome Lumière
1907–1935The first practical color photography — potato starch grains dyed red, green, blue as a pointillist color filter.
Glass plate coated with dyed potato starch grains (RGB) then silver emulsion. Viewed as a transparency. Pointillist quality.
1 artist6 colors
Autochrome Process
French
Invented by the Lumière brothers. The starch-grain filter creates a dreamy, impressionistic quality unlike any other medium.
The random distribution of dyed starch grains acts like a Seurat painting — colors mix optically at distance. Visible grain gives a painterly, pointillist character.