Lot 216: WARNECKE, HARRY (1900-1984)

Times Square at night. Tricolor carbro print, 12 3/ 4x16 inches (32.4x40.6 cm.), with the Warnecke's signature, title, and date, in pencil, on recto; signed and dated, in pencil, with a handstamp, on verso. 1947

The use of color in photography began with the inception of the medium. Hand coloring was used to enhance daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, and paper prints. In the late 19th century and early 20th century photographers began to experiment with a variety of coloring techniques and processes. Many pictorialist photographers, in an effort to show that photography was an artistic medium, tested the limits of the medium by applying various coatings, including gums and pigments, which were used to give the photograph a new visual appeal. Although novice photographers mainly used color photography, it was the inception of the color negative in the early 1940s that was the catalyst for the use of color in professional photography. In the late 60s and early 70s color photography found its grounding among the new and upcoming photographers of the day. Color allowed artists to express their personal visions and move photography beyond the realistic realm and into a new world of visualization and perception. Using ideas of abstraction and transforming the natural world into the unnatural, color photography was elevated into the art world.