Photography (1852-2010)
The next big landmark in photography came with the introduction of the first commercial use of colour photography known as the Lumière Autochrome thanks to French innovators, Louis and Auguste Lumière. They introduced a patented colour photography process which consists of a glass plate coated on both sides with microscopic grains of dyed potato starch which acted as colour filters. This new type of photography became wildly popular for capturing landscapes as well as for photojournalistic images and are also both credited to be the first filmmakers in history. Maldon Archive illuminates the early history of Maldon. Maldon Archive illuminates the early history of Maldon.
The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, France, to Charles-Antoine Lumière (1840–1913) and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière, who were married in 1861 and moved to Besançon, setting up a small photographic portrait studio where Auguste and Louis were born. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where son Edouard and three daughters were born. Auguste and Louis both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father Charles-Antoine set up a small factory producing photographic plates, but even with Louis and a young sister working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. it teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, and by 1882 it looked as if they would fail, but when Auguste returned from military service the boys designed the machines necessary to automate their father's plate production and devised a very successful new photo plate, 'etiquettes bleue', and by 1884 the factory employed a dozen workers.
Photography (1852-2010) continued
When their father retired in 1892 the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented several significant processes leading up to their film camera, most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector.
The original cinématographe had been patented by Léon Guillaume Bouly on 12 February 1892. The brothers patented their own version on 13 February 1895. The first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on 19 March 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.
The Lumière brothers saw film as a novelty and had withdrawn from the film business in 1905. They went on to develop the first practical photographic colour process, the Lumière Autochrome. Tomb of the Lumière brothers in the New Guillotière Cemetery in Lyon
Louis died on 6 June 1948 and Auguste on 10 April 1954. They are buried in a family tomb in the New Guillotière Cemetery in Lyon.
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