Albert Kahn

Albert Kahn was a French banker, philantropist, art lover and photography maecenas. In 1908 he decided to use the recently invented color photography technology (yes color!) to document the world in images. He hired renowned photographers to travel the world and photograph people high and low, landscapes, cityscapes, buildings.

An amazing project that went on from 1909 to 1930. The legacy is remarkable, and remarkably unknown. Probably because it is French rather than American or British...

His big project was interrupted by WW1, but that did not stop the photography. He continued, which has given us an unbelievable collection of WW1 images in color. Just look at these pictures of colonial conscripts from Algeria, Senegal and Indochina. Fighting for the French on the fields of Flanders, in Verdun, at the Somme. Amazing from more than one perspective...

True color photos; no post-coloration, no present-day digital manipulation. It's the real thing: color images almost a century old. Truly amazing.




There's a fantastic book on Albert Kahn and the photo's:
http://www.albertkahn.co.uk