AWESOME PHOTO THREAD - WW1 in full colour!!!!

[Chemical Ollie]

I was really amazed by the TV series "True Colours of WW2" or whatever it's called in English. Those colour films made all the horrors seem like yesterday. B/W films and photos make history look older than it is, and B/W technology was used way into the 70ies.

As most of you probably don't know, colour photography was invented by the French Lumiere brothers about the turn of the last century. But it took a while before they really exported it. I've found some sites where the Frogs and their Russian friends show the period of WW1 and even earlier in it's true colours. Even if it was almost a 100 years ago, these pictures make the history feel much closer. They were just humans too, and they took part in one of the most idiotic mistakes ever.

I'm surprised we havent seen these pictures in the mainstream history books before, as the winners write the history, and the French certainly claimed to have won when they dictated the Peace in Versaille. I don't think it's some Technicolor or Photoshopping, it really seems to be true colour photos from that time.

http://www.mediatheque-patrimoine.culture.gouv.fr/fr/archives_photo/visites_guidees/autochromes.html

http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-color.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/object.html

(To bad they removed the best site, that one was really AWESOME. It was only a temporary link.)

[Ecthy]

seen some of those before... others show cathedrals, POWs and even the emir of Bokhara or something... not WWI-related, but same time.

[Chemical Ollie]

[Chemical Ollie]

[Chemical Ollie]

Anybody who has been in military service should be familiar with this picture. This hasn't changed the last 100 years.

[monolith94]

Even more interesting:

http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-children.html

[Az]

GREAT pics. This is very interesting, and really makes wwI come alive.

[Pekka]

Excellent pics, first time I have seen WW1 pics in colour. Which might be the reason I have found it a bit borish.. anyway, great links, I have enjoyed myself. And yes, they come ALIVE

[Grandpa Troll]

If only we would learn and all get along

Gramps

[Chemical Ollie]

Russian kids in 1909. What has really changed in 96 years?

EDIT: But I think this image is Photoshopped

[Sirotnikov]

this image struck me as lively

[Chemical Ollie]

This could be today in Chechnya, Afghanistan or whatever. But it was a 100 years ago.

[Chemical Ollie]

Don Quijote, feel the horror of Tsar Russia in 1912

[Whaleboy]

Amazing Absolutely incredible... I'm bookmarking some of this. It's so eerie to think that most of the people that survived that war are dead and dying now. And the pic of the Russian kids in 1909... that strange look on the blonde girls face on the right... I don't know why but this is mind blowing.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Russian kids in 1909. What has really changed in 96 years?

They'd be carrying mobile phones now.