Color Photography

From fashion photography to photojournalism to smartphone snapshots, color photography has become so ubiquitous that it is perhaps the defining visual language of today. It was not until the 1890s that color film was successfully produced, and only a few early experimenters—mostly amateur scientists or intrepid travelers—used the medium to capture nature, cultural sites, or the occasional sitter. However, Kodak’s 1935 breakthrough in the mass manufacturing of color film made color photography widely accessible, and commercial photographers swiftly adopted the new Kodachrome brand. In art, the delay took much longer. The watershed moment was William Eggleston’s exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1976—the first major museum exhibition …