Silver salt paper base, hand-colored, German Audi DKW produced from 1950 to 1953, car in the suburbs, colored by Xie Caifeng
In 1839, the invention of photography revolutionized the way people perceive and record the world. The birth of Daguerre photography and Talbot's Carlo-style photography, especially the British invention of Talbot's method of retaining and copying images on negatives, gave people the possibility of secondary creation, and photography became a Art.
silver salt paper base hand-colored. In 1837, Daguerre took "The Studio" with natural light in his studio. This photo is the earliest surviving "Daguerretype" photo and the world's first still life photo. Colored by Teo Chi-Hsien
But at first, the absence of color in the photo was seen as a pity. For example, one of the origins of the early development of photography came from the rise of the portrait business in photo studios. At first, they were just black and white photos. Later, in order to pursue more realistic effects, people turned their attention to hand-colored photos that were more realistic and artistic.
Silver salt paper base hand-colored, Yin Mengzhen Photography / Wu Qilong coloring
Hand-colored coloring is mainly through post-dying or painting, making the photos look real, vivid and more artistic. Later, in the pictorial photography movement that elevated photography to an artistic level, people generally accepted post-processing of photos to achieve the effects desired by the artist and satisfy collectors' requirements for the uniqueness of the collection. In 1889, nature photography appeared, and photography began to exist as an independent art form. Recording and expression are the two major functions of photography, and color is one of the important means of expression.
Hand-painted silver salt paper base, large-scale coloring stills of the movie "The Square Hat"
However, due to the technical and cost constraints of the time, various color processing technologies were not popular in that era, even in 1907 Lumière After the Er brothers invented the Autochrom glass positive film. From the second half of the 19th century to the 20th century, people were dedicated to finding feasible solutions. During this period, hand coloring was considered an important means to make the pale tones of portraits, landscapes, and even documentary photos come alive, thereby enhancing the aesthetics and appeal of the work.
Notre Dame de Paris and Seine River , Xie Caifeng Coloring
The development of Chinese photography is no exception. In the early days of the development of colorized photos in China, many practitioners were converted from portraiture. They used their original painting techniques to manually color black and white photos. In the 1860s, foreigners came to open photo studios in some of China's open treaty ports. Among them, Italian photographer Felice Beato's colored photos are lifelike and lifelike, and are very popular in the Eastern market. In 1866, William Saunders, an Englishman who was engaged in photography in Shanghai, used hand-coloring techniques to produce a series of Shanghai custom and portrait photos, which are recognized as one of the most classic portraits of this period. .
Hand-colored on silver salt paper, Albert Einstein portrait, colored by Xie Caifeng
At the beginning of the 20th century, photo studios gradually increased in some big cities in China, and people's social demand for taking photos was increasing day by day. More and more people not only take photos, but also color black-and-white photos, which objectively promotes the development of early manual coloring techniques for photos in China. In the 1920s and 1930s, hand-colored photos were very popular in Shanghai. In the 1950s, Huang Yuehua and Wu Renlin, two masters of the China Photo Studio who moved from Shanghai to Beijing, systematized and documented the theory of manual coloring of photos. They also opened technical schools in Beijing and across the country to teach their skills and confer professional titles on them. With the inheritance and successors, the coloring level of black and white photos in our country has been significantly improved in the short period before the advent of color photos. Many of these professional technicians, such as Wu Qilong, Xu Jinming, Liu Xin, Xie Caifeng, Zhang Zhixian, etc., were outstanding talents and inheritors of that period.They dedicated their youth to this skill that is almost lost and is in urgent need of "rescuing".
French sculptor Auguste Rodin in his studio, Xie Caifeng colors
In today's world, photography technology is developing rapidly, color images are readily available, and various effects can be achieved with computers and specialized software. Image art is in full bloom, and creative forms and expression methods are colorful. In this environment, the return of respect and interest in traditional crafts has prompted some contemporary photographers to use manual coloring methods to create works. This is an issue worthy of in-depth consideration. .
The relationship between painting and photography and the possibility of hybrid creation are constantly being explored and practiced, and the "expression" function of photography is increasingly being used to its extreme. German writer Goethe once said: "Great artists formulate beauty instead of accepting ready-made beauty." From this perspective, although photography and painting are two relatively independent arts, they bloom when they are integrated. Strange beauty. The uniqueness of the moment of the photographed image and the non-replicability of the painting are unified in the same work. This is also a value that other works of art cannot match.
Monet's Garden and Nippon Bridge , Xie Caifeng colors
At the same time, hand coloring expresses the author's inner conception and color levels, which cannot be mechanized or programmed, and each work will not be the same. Good works need to be completed by people with certain experience and artistic accumulation. Therefore, as the crystallization of technology and art, the only existence, hand-painted artwork has its own unique value.
Jinglida International Image Library hand coloring class student work
