A series of prints that was published primarily from the 1890s to the 1910s was recently assembled by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division in the USA. The prints were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. The boldly colored images appear at first glance to be afterwards-colored photographs, but are actually photolithographs, which are ink-based. Photolithography, also called optical lithography or UV lithography, is a process used in microfabrication to pattern parts of a thin film or the bulk of a substrate. The procedure uses light to transfer a geometric pattern from a photomask to a light-sensitive chemical “photoresist”, or simply “resist,” on the substrate.
Similar to postcards, the photochroms, which were 16.5 cm / 6.5 in x 23 cm / 9 in in size, depict subjects that are of interest mostly to travelers, including landscapes, buildings, street scenes, and happenings of day-to-day culture. The images from the collection were initally sold as souvenirs and were often bought by collectors who gathered them in albums or framed them for display.
These pictures are not extremely deep images in terms of symbolism or depth, but they are eye- grabbing works of art in that they offer a somewhat impressionistic taste, without looking anything like an impressionist painting. The colors and the lights give you a sense of something you know, of a place you’ve seen, maybe even if you’ve never been there. They give out an impression that over time has become embedded in our collective imaginary and which has been processed over numberous works of art, including in films and television series.
There’s a certain type of light and color that conveys an atmosphere in a way that seems photographic, but charged with a ineffable atmosphere.
