Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

ciated with the glamour and film industries. By the
1930s, reproductions in popular magazines were
often from hand-coloured photographs. Hollywood
film stars were seen delicately coloured at a time
when the movies in which they starred were shot in
black and white. Even after the invention of Techni-
colour, the cinema industry in the 1940s and into the
1950s still employed hand colourists, primarily to
work on movie stills and publicity shots. As films
were often shot under controlled lighting in the stu-
dio, the still photographer with slower lenses than the
film cameraman would produce their work in mono-
chrome, with the publicity departments reproducing
their prints from hand-coloured photographs.
It was common in the 1930s for portrait photo-
graphers to supply clients with hand-coloured prints.
The methods of colouring varied depending on the
intensity of colour required. Normally, a sepia-toned
print was used as the warmth of the base provided a
better rendering to the colours of the inks, dyes, and
paints used, and also ensured none of the print
would be seen as black and white. Many books
offered both the professional and amateur photogra-
pher advice on the technique of hand colouring while
simultaneously expressing a general mistrust of this
practice, especially for the serious photographer.
Public taste for colour, even in its crudest form,
had induced portrait photographers to offer to their
customers coloured photographs which, sometimes,
are far removed from works of art. However, specia-
lists in such work may plead extenuating circum-
stances; for example, severe competition (Clerc, 463).
The mediums recommended by this and other
volumes had different characteristics and results
depending on the qualities of the print. Coloured
dyes adhered best to glossy prints while smoother

matte papers responded better to water colours. Pas-

tel crayons were suitable especially if the user had an

understanding of sketching, though the complica-

tions suggested by the amount of formulae required

to treat the print prior to working with oil paints

would deter all but the most dedicated. The air brush

was employed for its smoothness in applying colour,

usually after areas of the print had been masked off,

and brushes of various sizes used to highlight detail.

As colour films became cheaper and thus more

widely used, the need for hand colouring receded.

Designers still used selective hand colouring in adver-

tisements and especially fashion magazines well into

the 1950s, often using blocks of colours in a similar

method to the picture postcards of the turn of the

century. Though occasionally still used, and repli-

cated now by computer retouching, it is the distinc-

tive and recognisable look of the hand-coloured print

that is its use and value long after colour photogra-

phy has become the norm, employed occasionally, in

most instances purely for its nostalgic appeal.

MIKECrawford

Seealso:Vernacular Photography

Further Reading

Clerc, L.P.Photography: Theory and Practise. London: Pit-

man & Sons, 1930.

Colebeck, Annie.Handtinting Photographs. London: Mac-

donald & Co., 1989.

Coote, Jack H.The Illustrated History of Colour Photogra-

phy. Surrey: Fountain Press, 1993.

Heinish, Heinz and Bridget Heinish.The Painted Photo-

graph, 1839–1914. PA, University State Press, 1994.

Langford, Michael.The Darkroom Handbook. London:

Edbury Press, 1981.

ERICH HARTMANN

American

Erich Hartmann’s strongly composed vision of doc-
umentary photography not only led him to join Mag-
num Photos in 1952, but to successfully apply his
vision to other realms with sensitivity and insight as
a self-named working photographer. His concise style
brought him commercial projects where he exercised

and experimented with the documentary genre. One

of his most poignant projects was to document the

deserted Nazi concentration camps decades after the

war, challenging his ability to capture the essence of

objects and place. This may appear as a counterpoint

to much of the work he was known for in the tech-

nology field, yet he developed a specialty in bringing

out the essence of seemingly inanimate objects, such

HAND COLORING AND HAND TONING