Captured in colour: rare photographs from the First World War - Léon Gimpel (1878–1948)

• Introduction
• Colour photography
• Australian official photographers
• The French autochromists

Léon Gimpel, a pioneer of French photojournalism, was quick to experiment with the new colour technology. His “eyewitness” photographs avoided the melodrama that graphic artists sometimes produced for popular magazines. This approach made his images of life in the trenches seem candid and informal, his subjects looking dispassionately at the camera.

Gimpel’s own interest in the potential of modern technology – he continued to experiment with photographic techniques well into the 1920s – found ample material in the rapid technical developments of the war.