Online Course | Colour Photography: Histories and Techniques

Wed 16 Apr 2025 - Wed 04 Jun 2025

See colour in a new light – explore its histories & uses in photography

Wednesday evenings, 18.30 - 20.00

This online course, planned to coincide with our exhibition Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever, traverses colour photography through history – its techniques and innovators, and some of the key practitioners.

Each week we'll take a new perspective, spotlighting one or more artists who have made a significant contribution to colour photography’s technical and aesthetic developments along the way.

The course will also include guest lectures from other specialists in the field of colour photography.

Led by Hana Kaluznick

Who is this for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in the development of colour photography over the past two centuries. This might include photographers, collectors and photography specialists. However no prior knowledge or experience of photography is required.

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.

Week 1 (16 April, 18.30-20.00): Colour Photography Before Colour Photography 

This session will introduce the idea and presence of colour in early photography, addressing techniques including hand colouring, photo-mechanical colour and more.

Week 2 (23 April, 18.30-20.00): Optics and Early Industry 

This week looks at challenges associated with creating an inexpensive and accessible form of colour photography and the scientists and photographers who made it possible.

Week 3 (30 April, 18.30-20.00): Pictorialism and the Autochrome

Regarded as the first commercial success in photographic colour technology, the introduction of the Autochrome in the early 1900s marks a significant point in photography’s history. This session introduces the Autochrome and the pictorial aesthetic that accompanied the period.

Week 4 (7 May, 18.30-20.00): Women and Colour

Women photographers played an important role in shaping new colour technologies and brought their own distinct approach to photographing in colour. This week considers women’s contributions to colour and the contemporary legacy of their impact.

Week 5 (14 May, 18.30-20.00): The Colour Revolution

Kodachrome and other chromogenic films sparked a new age of consumer colour. Characterised by by colourful magazines, advertisements and family photographs, these film products revolutionised the worlds of both professional and vernacular photography.

Week 6 (21 May, 18.30-20.00): The Problems with Colour

Colour technologies are the products of the people who create them. This session will address the biases built into colour photography and the contemporary photographers interrogating these histories.

Week 7 (May 28, 18.30-20.00): American Colour

American photographers pioneered the presence of colour photographs in mainstream museums. This week looks at some of these photographers and the institutions that championed their work.

Week 8 (June 4, 18.30-20.00): 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.

Hana Kaluznick is currently undertaking doctoral research on the plurality of early colour photographic processes in Britain before the consolidation of colour photography by major industrial companies in the 1930s. 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.

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.