Now you see it, and Now you don’t: Illusive colour

Klein, Susanne

Abstract

Colour, as beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. In 1861, based on the RGB model of colour perception, James Clerk Maxwell produced the first colour photographs by exposing black and white film through red, green and blue filters, thus recording intensity patterns, but not colour itself. Going back to Maxwell's recording method and printing the result as lithography or Woodburytype in cyan, magenta and yellow or with red, green, blue speciality pigments allows to explore 'true' colour and empowers the artist to intervene at all stages of the process. Knowing that three black and white negatives are being created rather than a colour one changes the approach as well as the result. The recording process is slow. The filters have to be changed between each image. Control, direction and choices made in advance of taking the picture change the dynamic between the photographer the scene or the sitter. Time is traced by coloured ghosts in the final print. Striving for a defined set of process colours at the printing stage rather than manipulating colours in film processing allows the photographer to consciously engage with the subject and visualise other senses, such as smell, noise and mood.

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Twenty-eighth Color and Imaging Conference
• Start Date: Nov 4, 2020
• End Date: Nov 19, 2020
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2020
• Keywords: colour, colour recording, RGB, analogue photography
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6941524