Issue No. 2 — selectedpictures

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Christmas Fashions

Poolside Encino, 1963

Malibu Beach California

Model Story

Untitled (Dolls in Hand-Knit Costumes)

Central Park Snow Scene #57

Central Park Snow Scene #28

Untitled (Interior)

Curtain Call

Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt

Arizona Pyrhiloxia (Male Cardinal)

Lloyd Nolan

Janet Blair

Dwarf Peppers

Color Still Life, Fruit

Untitled (Surrealist Mannequin)

Untitled (China Cupboard)

Freddie Bartholomew

Christine Carère

Untitled (USAF Radar Installation)

Untitled (Orchids)

Nuclear Testing: "George"

Atlanta GA, 1977

Space Shuttle

Issue No. 2: Early Color Photographs

Issue No.2 of selectedpictures features vintage color photography. An attraction to the lush, over-saturated pigments on display in old Technicolor movies and early color photography inspired me to be a collector. This group of twenty-four images includes seven different color processes spanning more than sixty years, photographed by eighteen different photographers.

Most of the early color photos in this selection have been identified as either “vintage tri-color carbro prints” or “vintage dye-transfer prints.” Both are examples of the three color subtractive or three color assembly process in which either carbon bromide (“carbro”) gelatin pigments or pigments in the form of dyes are applied sequentially to a paper backing. Most of these prints date from the 1930’s and 1940’s and are the result of an expensive and time-consuming technique. Tri-color carbro and early dye transfer prints are now relatively scarce.

Three of the photos here are designated as “chromogenic” prints. The chromogenic process developed from the technology that gave us the color snapshot and it accounts for most of the color photography produced during the latter half of the twentieth century. “Chromogenic” is also a non-specific term employed by a number of curators and fine art photography dealers to describe contemporary pre-digital color photograph that may be difficult to identify.