This online course, planned to coincide with our exhibition Peter Mitchell: Lost and Found, traverses colour photography through history – its techniques and innovators, and some of the key practitioners.
Each week we will take a new perspective, spotlighting one or more artists who have made a significant contribution to colour photography’s technical and aesthetic expansions along the way.
The course will also include guest lectures from other specialists in the field of colour photography.
Ticketing
Details on how to access the course, via the Zoom platform, will be confirmed ahead of course start. Please check your junk folders if you haven't received an email from TPG staff.
By booking for this event you agree to our Terms & Conditions.
Course structure
Week 1 (16 April): Colour Photography Before Colour Photography
An introduction to the idea of colour photography, including hand colouring and chromolithography.
Week 2 (23 April): Optics and Early Industry
This week looks at the emergence of consumer colour and different slide types, including ‘The Tartan Ribbon’ experiment.
Week 3 (30 April): Pictorialism and the Autochrome
Patented in 1903, the Autochrome marked a significant point in colour photography’s history. This session introduces the Autochrome, alongside colour pictorialism in the UK through gum printing and toning.
Week 4 (7 May) Women and Colour
Victorian women played an important role in shaping new colour technologies and aesthetics in photography and the film industry, including Technicolour. This week looks at a range of contributions made by women.
Week 5 (14 May): The Colour Revolution
This session covers the history of Kodachrome and other chromogenic films, as well as colour in magazines and advertising. Here we will also explore the concept of ‘colour photographer’.
Week 6 (21 May): The Problems with Colour
The ‘Shirley Card’ sought to create calibrated standards to the printing process, based on the appearance of white women. Here we will look at biases that were built into colour photography and the contemporary photographers interrogating these histories.
Week 7 (May 28): American Colour
The Museum of Modern Art began collecting photography in 1930. This week looks at some of the major contributions made by American photographers to colour photography.
Week 8 (June 4): Colour in Contemporary Practice
Bringing us up to the present, this session will look at recent colour photography and the impacts on the medium that photographers are continuing to make through their work.
Biography
Hana Kaluznick is currently undertaking doctorate research on the plurality of early colour photographic processes in Britain before the consolidation of colour photography by major industrial companies. She is also Assistant Curator of Photography at the Victoria & Albert Museum. She is co-author of Calling the Shots: A Queer History of Photography, Thames and Hudson/V&A, 2024 and a contributor to Pandemic Objects, AA Publications, London, 2024 and Another Country: British Documentary Photography since 1945, Thames and Hudson, London, 2022.
Bursaries
A number of partial bursaries covering 50 per cent of course fees will be awarded on a first come basis. Applicants who wish to be considered for a partial bursary should submit a statement (max. 500 words) to projects@tpg.org.uk, outlining how Colour Photography: Histories and Techniques would contribute to their professional development. Successful applicants will be notified within a week of submission.
We actively encourage applications from groups who are currently underrepresented in the cultural sector in the UK. This includes people who identify as D/deaf, disabled* and neurodivergent; those with caring responsibilities; candidates from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds; and arts and culture professionals whose career development has been negatively impacted by Covid-19, prioritising independent artists, freelancers and those made redundant/at risk of redundancy since 2020.
*The Equality Act 2010 defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Sharing that you are disabled will not be used in any way in judging the quality of your application.