The Art of color

I had seen this referred to in the bibliographies of several books about photographic history so I decided to buy one, good copies are obviously still available and for a reasonable price though if you want one with a jacket it'll push the cost up. Published in 1951 with 194 color photos I think it's an impressive title.

The sub-head to the book is: 'A treasury of color photography by the staff photographers of Vogue, House & Garden and Glamour'. I doubt any of the seventeen featured in the book were employed full-time on the three influential magazines published by Conde Nast but I think the contents really do reflect the nature of color work at mid-century. Art photography was in black and white, color was used for advertising and editorial, a view that really didn't change until the mid-seventies when MoMA introduced Eggleston's color work to a very sceptical audience.

Look through these pages and you'll some first-class color photography, admittedly these images aren't personal artistic statements but editorial commissions, still highly creative of course. The index lists the photographers under these headings: Experimentation; Fashion; Figures; Illustration; Interiors; Landscapes; Portraits, reportage; Still-life. The back pages provide short tech-specs for each photo and some interesting points are revealed. Erwin Blumenfeld's famous lips and eye Vogue cover was actually a black and white image with the color created by the engravers. Two photos by Herbert Matter and Richard Rutledge both had people added later to the photos by the engravers. These were skilled technicians at color correction and retouching decades before Photoshop.

The book was designed and edited by Conde Nast's Art Director Alexander Liberman and it reflects contemporary publication design back in the fifties. Unfortunately the printing uses a 133 screen (printed today it would be 175 to 250) rather than something finer which the photos really deserve. Despite that I think this is a lovely reminder of great color work from the past.

The Art and Technique of Color Photography is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE)

Title page.

Each of the seventeen portfolios start with an essay by the photographer.

Right: Erwin Blumenfeld's famous Vogue cover shot but it was actually a black and white photo heavily worked on by the art dept and platemakers.

The back pages have technical details of how the photo was taken.

A gallery photo by Herbert Matter, the three men on the left were not in the original shot but stripped in at the plate-making stage.

Right: Richard Rutledge's photo of Mrs Joseph E Davies at home with her collection of Imperial Russian jewels but because the room was quite small she was added by the plate-maker from a seperate photo.

The specs about Blemenfeld's Vogue cover shot.

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