Colorized photos

It might come as a surprise, but it wasn't long after photography became widespread that experiments with color took place, creating vivid images which

Although we cannot get into the minds of the people waiting in a queue on a cold day in Chukotka, Soviet Union back in 1985 to get wine, or what the daredevil sky boys who built the Empire State Building in 1930-31 were thinking when balancing unsecured on the 88th floor, we can get a fairly good glimpse into the wonders of history.

These are some of the earliest Autochrome photos showing the life in New York in the early 1900s. A Monday washing, New York City, 1900 ...

These colorized monochrome photos will change the way you imagine the past. Since we live and remember in color, a black-and-white image seems almost of another world. Through the process of colorization, that world becomes more familiar, easier to imagine, and easier to connect to.

When you think of old photos or historical pictures, you naturally think in terms of black and white, but as you can see from these stunning vintage photos from the turn of the 20th century, color pictures have been around for a lot longer than you think.

Tired of the endless series of black and white photos that were popular in the day, French banker Albert Kahn decided to do something about it. In 1909, he commissioned four photographers to take their cameras all around the world, and using Autochrome Lumière, to document in color what they saw.

Color images of the Russian Empire in Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii’s gorgeous photos, the goofy Romanovs and Olga Shirnina stirring colorized pictures of Russians in World War 1 take us back. In this gallery we see Olga’s work on photographs from World War 2. See more of Olga Shirnina’s work on her website.

Mark twain in color, circa 1900.

Russian artist Olga Shirnina (also known as 'klimbim') colors archive images of Romanov family.