By the time of Albert Kahn’s death in 1940, the French banker and philanthropist had amassed a collection of more than 72,000 autochrome photographs. Grace Linden explores the Archives de la Planète — his sprawling, global project to document and preserve the fast-changing world — and uncovers a latent nostalgia in the hyperreal hues of early color photography.
I love the old photos! I want to believe that these people dressed like that to go about their day, but I have a suspicion that some of them at least dressed up to have their autochromes taken. So while I don’t want to lose them, I also want to see what they wore on a normal day.
I had a similar thought when i saw how Rabindranath Tagore was dressed.
Like, was this guy walking down the street like that? They look like old timey night clothes. Was that considered normal dress, or weird for Paris in that time? I have no idea.