The autochrome process developed in Lyon in 1903 by the Lumière brothers and French film and photographic pioneers Lumière to produce colour photographs was first presented to the enthusiastic visitors of the Photo-Club de Paris in 1907. In the following years, important and well-known photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Frank Eugene, Heinrich Kühn, Nicola Perscheid and Emma Barton quickly adapted, tested, used and disseminated the innovative technology and incorporated it into their artistic work. But by far not only in art, but also in reporting and the newspaper industry, the autochrome process was experimented with for a while. However, the production costs and purchase price of the autochrome plates and, above all, the considerably longer exposure time compared to the black-and-white drying plates that were common and customary at the time soon proved to be too high or impractical. Nevertheless, the historically first method of colour photography was used intensively, not least for impressive, impressive and shocking pictures during the First World War. One of the most active photographers in this respect was Louis Fernand Cuville, who was born in Bordeaux in 1887 and also died there in 1927.
Together with the equally qualified photographer Pierre-Joseph Paul Castelnau (1880-1944), he worked as military operator of the photographic department "SPA" of the French army from 1914 until the end of the war in 1918 under the direction of Pierre Marcel Lévi. The photographers of this unit took almost every photo taken twice and sent the autochromes to the "Archives de la Planète" (Archives of the Planet), the largest ethnological photo and film project in the world, founded in Paris in 1908 by the wealthy banker and photo enthusiast Albert Kahn and personally directed until 1930. Many of the photographs by Cuville and Castelnau are part of the collection of the "Musée départemental Albert-Kahn" in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt southwest of Paris in the Département Hauts-de-Seine, which was opened in 1990 and is also known for its spacious gardens covering an area of four hectares. The two photographers Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud and Albert Samama Chikli also belonged to the "SPA", who produced just as many colour photographs of the battlefields. Even better known, however, was the freelance photographer Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, whose two books of autochrome images of the front at the Marne and Verdun contained the first ever colour images of the First War.
Louis Fernand Cuville in turn became additionally known to a broad public after the war through his numerous autochromes from his repeated trips to the Greek Orthodox monk's republic around Mount Athos on the peninsula of Chalkidikí in Central Macedonia, which has also been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. After he left military service in 1919 and got a job as a photographer at the "Archives de la Planète", he repeatedly photographed the mountainous landscapes of the Pyrenees, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Landes and Haute-Garonne in the southwest of France in 1919 and 1920, and often photographed unique cultural monuments such as the 12th century Gothic cathedral of Soissons in the department of Aisne. One of Louis Fernand Cuville's most famous war photographs today is the 1917 photograph taken in Reims of a little girl playing innocently with her doll, along with two rifles placed on the ground and a soldier's backpack.
The autochrome process developed in Lyon in 1903 by the Lumière brothers and French film and photographic pioneers Lumière to produce colour photographs was first presented to the enthusiastic visitors of the Photo-Club de Paris in 1907. In the following years, important and well-known photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Frank Eugene, Heinrich Kühn, Nicola Perscheid and Emma Barton quickly adapted, tested, used and disseminated the innovative technology and incorporated it into their artistic work. But by far not only in art, but also in reporting and the newspaper industry, the autochrome process was experimented with for a while. However, the production costs and purchase price of the autochrome plates and, above all, the considerably longer exposure time compared to the black-and-white drying plates that were common and customary at the time soon proved to be too high or impractical. Nevertheless, the historically first method of colour photography was used intensively, not least for impressive, impressive and shocking pictures during the First World War. One of the most active photographers in this respect was Louis Fernand Cuville, who was born in Bordeaux in 1887 and also died there in 1927.
Together with the equally qualified photographer Pierre-Joseph Paul Castelnau (1880-1944), he worked as military operator of the photographic department "SPA" of the French army from 1914 until the end of the war in 1918 under the direction of Pierre Marcel Lévi. The photographers of this unit took almost every photo taken twice and sent the autochromes to the "Archives de la Planète" (Archives of the Planet), the largest ethnological photo and film project in the world, founded in Paris in 1908 by the wealthy banker and photo enthusiast Albert Kahn and personally directed until 1930. Many of the photographs by Cuville and Castelnau are part of the collection of the "Musée départemental Albert-Kahn" in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt southwest of Paris in the Département Hauts-de-Seine, which was opened in 1990 and is also known for its spacious gardens covering an area of four hectares. The two photographers Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud and Albert Samama Chikli also belonged to the "SPA", who produced just as many colour photographs of the battlefields. Even better known, however, was the freelance photographer Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, whose two books of autochrome images of the front at the Marne and Verdun contained the first ever colour images of the First War.
Louis Fernand Cuville in turn became additionally known to a broad public after the war through his numerous autochromes from his repeated trips to the Greek Orthodox monk's republic around Mount Athos on the peninsula of Chalkidikí in Central Macedonia, which has also been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. After he left military service in 1919 and got a job as a photographer at the "Archives de la Planète", he repeatedly photographed the mountainous landscapes of the Pyrenees, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Landes and Haute-Garonne in the southwest of France in 1919 and 1920, and often photographed unique cultural monuments such as the 12th century Gothic cathedral of Soissons in the department of Aisne. One of Louis Fernand Cuville's most famous war photographs today is the 1917 photograph taken in Reims of a little girl playing innocently with her doll, along with two rifles placed on the ground and a soldier's backpack.
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