Stephen White is a longtime collector who began as one of the first photographic art dealers in the United States when he opened his Los Angeles gallery in 1975. He mounted two major traveling museum exhibitions from his collection, organized significant gallery shows, and published numerous catalogues and a book. In 1990 he sold his collection to a Japanese museum and soon began to collect again.
The works on exhibition are from his second collection, and they represent one collector’s personal view of color photography. Included are excellent examples of a variety of color techniques, many complicated and valued for their richly intense color or prized for their delicate subtleties.
The exhibition in not meant to be an encyclopedic overview of all color processes, however. The focus here is on images rather than techniques. Stephen’s eye tends toward the unusual and arcane. He is drawn to an image because of its compelling aesthetic character ( unique color, composition, mood), or he may be fascinated by the photographs political references or historical context.
We are pleased to share Stephen’s personal vision and passion for photography in the hopes of encouraging others.
Dennis Reed, Dean
Fine, Performing & Media Arts
Color Photography Timeline
At its birth, the fact that photography could not record and reproduce the actual colors of a subject was mitigated by the exquisite detail and tonal quality of the first practical process, the daguerreotype. However, the desire for full-color images-or some approximation to realistic color-occupied many photographers and experimenters throughout the 19th century, and indeed has continued to do so. A great number of substitute methods have been devised to add colors to an image either by hand or by chemical processes, or by printing black-and-white negatives on single-color materials.
1802 Thomas Young advances the idea that color are sensations, not physical properties of objects, and that they can be created by additive color synthesis: stimulation of the eye with various proportions of mono pack-emulsion paper for negative-positive printing. The idea is elaborated in the 1840s to 1860s by von Helmholtz in the three-color of vision.
1810 Johann Seebeck notes that silver plates with partial sensitization with silver chloride duplicate the colors of light falling on them. In the late 1840s this becomes the basis of heliochromy: direct color images recorded on daguerreotype plates, investigated independently by Edmond Becquerel and Niepce de Saint-Victor. It is also the basis of the Hillotype hoax of Rev. Levi Hill in the early 1850s.
1855 James Clerk Maxwell suggests the use of filters to obtain primary-color records by photographic means for use in creating color images according to the Young-Helmholtz theory.
1861 Using black-and-white slides photographed through primary-color filters by Tomas Sutton, Maxwell demonstrates additive color synthesis. The results are imperfect, and the method works by a fluke not explained for almost 100 years, but the basis fo modern color photography has been laid.
1862 Louis Ducos Du Hauron patents a camera with internal beam splitters to divide the image from a single lens into three images. This is the basis of the one-shot color camera and related devices perfected by Frederick Eugene Ives in the 1890s and after, notably the Kromskop for integrated viewing of three-color black-and-white images as a single full-color image.
1868-1869 Ducos Du Hauron publishes Les Couleurs en Photographie setting forth the theoretical bases of almost all additive and subtractive color synthesis processes subsequently developed by others, including Mosiac Systems and screen processes in which tiny primary-color elements at the film plane perform the fundamental color analysis of the image. At the same time, charles Cros independently demonstrates image synthesis based on three-color separation negative and positives. Both men take red, blue, and yellow(instead of green) as primary colors, but because of the green component of yellow light their demonstrations are reasonably successful.
1894 John Joly patents the first line screen process for additive color images; it is introduced commercially in 1896.
1904 The Lumiere brothers obtain patents for an additive-color plate with an integraal mosaic; introduced in 1907 as the autochrome plate, it is the first truly successful process for general photography in color.
1906 The Finlaycolor Process for producing additive color images using improved regular screens(rather than random mosaics) is patented; the process is applied in the separate Thames Colour Screen(1908) and the integral Thames Colour Plate(1909).
1910 The Dioptichrome plate, a regular screen additive color process that became more popular than the Lumiere Autochrome process is patented; an improved version in the 1920s is introduced as Dufay-Color.
1912 Rudolph Fischer and H. Siegrist patent a subtractive color film composed of three layers, each effectively sensitive to one primary color, and incorporating Color Couplers to produce dye images by chromogenic development as the silver positive image is produced in the course of reversal processing. Their work draws on prior dye development discoveries by Liesegang(1895) and Homolka(1905), and forms the basis for all subsequent monopack subtractive color films, a priority that is seldom acknowledged.
1914 The Fischer-Siegrist method is introduced in an amateur movie film for Two-Color Photography, rather than three-color.
1925 The Jos Pe Company introduces a dye imbibition process in which relief images from color separations are dye in subtractive colors(cyan, magenta, yellow) and the dye images are assembled by a transfer process in register on a single gelatin film; it is the basis of the subsequent Technicolor, wash-off relief, and dye transfer processess.
1934 Gasparcolor materials introduce the first commercial dye destruction process, in which a subtractive color image is formed by removing unnecessary dyes rather than forming the required amounts of dye in the emulsion of a print material.
The process is an improvement of the Utocolor process of 1910, and builds on patents obtained by J.H.Christensen from 1918 on; its is the forerunner of the Cibachrome process introduced after World War II.
1935 Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes, working with the Kodak Research Laboratories, produces Kodachrome film, the first successful monopack, subtractive color reversal film. It solves the problem of color couplers migrating between emulsion layers by including them in separate developers rather than in the emulsion.
1936 Agfa produces a subtractive color reversal film with color couplers fixed in place in the emulsion layers and using a single developer to produce the positive image.
1939 The Agfacolor process introduces a monopack color negative film and a mono pack-emulsion paper for negative-positive printing.
1942 Kodacolor film, the first negative film with completely anchored color couplers in each emulsion layers is introduced.
1950 Kodacolor negative film is produced with residual colored couplers to produce a self-masking feature that compensates for the printing deficiencies of the cyan and magenta image dyes.
1972 A self contained, single-sheet color diffusion transfer film is introduced, Polaroid SX-70 film.
1981 Agfa and Ilford introduce films that produce black-and-white negatives by chromogenic action with a standard color negative developer.
1982 Kodak introduces diffusion transfer materials for color printing in the darkroom from negatives or transparencies.
1983 Kodak introduces a one-sheet diffusion transfer color camera film in which the positive image can be peeled away after processing so that the bulky base material and negative layers can be discarded.
1983 Polaroid Corp. introduces a diffusion transfer 35mm color slide film in corporating an additive-color screen.
Encyclopedia of Photography, International Center of Photography
1975年，史蒂芬·怀特在洛杉矶开了一家摄影画廊，成为美国第一批摄影艺术经纪人，他漫长的收藏生涯从那里开始。从个人收藏中，他曾发起过两次美术馆巡回展，策划了许多精彩的画廊展，出版了无数画册和图书。1990年，一个日本美术馆买下了他的全部收藏，此后不久，他又开始了第二次收藏。
现在展出的作品出自他的第二次收藏，代表了一个收藏家对于彩色摄影的个人观点。展品中包括了各种彩色摄影技术的精彩范例，其中许多因丰富强烈的色彩而被珍视，或因精巧的微妙之处而价格不菲。
但是，这个展览并不意图于成为彩色摄影技术的百科全书，而是更关注于影像本身，史蒂芬的眼睛关注的是那些不寻常和神秘之处。他被影像咄咄逼人的美学个性（特别的色彩，构图，情绪）所吸引，或者也许是着迷于作品的政治和历史内涵。
我们希望借分享史蒂芬的个人视角和激情，进而引发他人对摄影艺术的关注。
丹尼斯 ·瑞德 院长
(洛杉矶山谷学院，美术、表演和新媒体艺术学院)
彩色摄影编年
自诞生之日起，摄影术无法记录或者复制事物本身彩色的事实就被达盖尔法 – 第一种具可行性的冲印方法 – 所提供的优雅细节和色调特性所改变。然而，希望得到彩色影像，或者某种尽可能的现实主义色彩的努力仍然贯穿了19世纪许多摄影师和实验者的人生。事实上，直到今天这个努力仍在继续。为了给影像加上色彩，大量替代方法被发明，不论是手工着色，还是借助化学反应，或者是在单色材料上做分色影像处理。
1802年，汤玛斯·杨推进了颜色为感知体验，而不是物体物理特性的理论。根据这一理论，颜色可以使用叠加色彩合成的方法来制造：用不同比例的单面感光纸激发视觉反映从而达成正负像冲印。这个观点在1840年到1860年间被旺·海默霍兹在三色视觉理论中进一步阐述。
1810年，约翰·斯别克注意到银版以氯化银部分感光时可以复制光的色彩。1840年代后期，这个发现成为彩色照相术的基础：直接把彩色影像记录在达盖尔版上， 埃德蒙·柏克奎瑞尔和尼派克·徳·圣维克多曾分别探索过这种技术。这也是乐维·希尔1850年早期希洛彩板“骗局”的技术基础。
1855年，詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克思威尔建议在根据杨-海默霍兹理论制作彩色照片时可以使用滤镜来获取三原色。
1861年，使用汤玛斯·苏通加原色滤片拍摄的一组黑白幻灯片，麦克思威尔演示了叠加色彩合成。结果并不完美，侥幸成功的方法在之后的100年中都没有得到合理的解释，但是现代彩色摄影的基础已经构成。
1862年，路易斯·杜卡斯·杜·昊容为一只照相机申请了专利，这只相机通过分割内部投射把通过同一镜头的影像分割为三个影像。这为1890年代弗雷德里克·尤金·艾维斯研制的一次性彩色相机及相关设备，以及其后克若莫斯卡普把三色黑白照片视觉整合为单张彩色照片的设备提供了理论基础。
1868-1869年，杜卡斯·杜·昊容发表了“彩色照相术”，为其后所有加减法色彩合成工艺奠定了理论基础，包括马赛克系统和丝网工艺 — 在一层网膜上用细小的三原色元素对影像进行基本的色彩分析。同时，查理斯·克洛斯独立演示了基于三色分离正负像的影像合成。两个人都是使用红蓝黄（而不是绿）作为原色，但是因为绿中包含的黄色光，他们的演示都还算是成功。
1894年，约翰·乔力为第一个线性丝网制作加色影像的工艺申请了专利。1896年，这一工艺被引入商用。
1899年，R·W·伍德为一个制作全色衍射照片的工艺申请了专利：黑白分色片被通过一个可以制造三原色衍射光栅的观片器来观看，后者是由F·E·艾维斯发明的。
1904年，卢米尔兄弟获得一个连结有马赛克的加色印版的专利，1907年被推介为（奥托克罗姆）彩屏干版，这是通常意义上第一个真正成功的彩色摄影工艺。
1906年，使用改进后的有规律丝网（替代随机的马塞克）制作加色照片，芬雷彩色工艺取得专利；这个工艺在1908年使用于分离泰晤士彩色丝网，1909年使用于完整泰晤士彩色印版。
1910年，屈光彩色干版获得专利，这种规律化加色工艺开始取代卢米尔兄弟的奥托克罗姆微粒彩屏干版；1920年代，这个工艺的改进版被称为迪非彩色。
1912年，鲁道夫·费舍和H·西格瑞斯特为一种三层减色底片申请了专利，这种底片的每一层对应一种感光原色，并和成色剂反应以显色冲印产生染色片，同时在反向的过程中制作正片。此工艺来源于1895年雷瑟岗，1905年霍摩卡在染色冲印上的发现，并构成了其后所有单面（三原色）减色彩色胶片的基础，但其重要性没有得到足够认可。
1914年，费舍-西格瑞斯特法在一个非专业电影中被应用，但不是三色，只是双色。
1925年，乔思培公司推介一种染料吸入工艺，分色片中的雕版用相减式色彩（青，品，黄）印染，然后对齐转印到一张明胶底片上得到染色影像；这是其后的特艺色彩, 可冲洗雕板，和染色转印工艺的基础。
1934年，盖思帕彩色材料引进了第一个商业印染减色工艺，通过剥离而不是增加感光乳剂中的染料来制作减色影像。这个工艺是1910年尤托彩色工艺的改进版，在J.H. 克里斯廷森1918年后所获专利的基础上研制；也是二战后引入的西霸克罗姆工艺的先驱。
1935年，里欧鲍德·高岛斯基和里欧鲍德·曼斯，与柯达实验室合作，生产了柯达克罗姆胶片，这是第一款成功的单面（三原色）减色法反转胶片。通过把成色剂加在分离的显影剂中解决了成色剂在感光乳剂层之间迁移的问题。
1936年，爱克发出产了一款减色反转片，能够把成色剂固定在感光乳剂的不同层中，从而只用一个显影剂就可制作正片。
1939年，爱克发彩色工艺推介了一款单面（三原色）彩色负片，配合单面感光纸冲印正负片。
1942年，柯达彩色胶片，这是第一款在每一感光层上都拥有完全固定成色剂的负片胶片。
1950年，柯达彩色负片通过残余成色剂生成色罩功能，从而达到对青和品染色不足的补偿。
1972年，一次成像单张彩色渗滤转印胶片面世，宝利来SX-70。
1981年，爱克发和伊尔福推介了一种可用标准彩色负片显影液以显色反映制作黑白负片的新品胶片。
1982年，柯达推介了渗滤转印材料，可在暗房中从负片或正片冲印彩色照片。
1983年，柯达推介了一种单张渗滤转印胶片，在工艺完成后，正像可以从笨重的底料和负像层上剥离。
1983年，宝利来公司推介了一种配合加色丝网的渗滤式转印35mm彩色幻灯片。
国际摄影中心《摄影百科全书》