Life in color! Breathtaking REAL color images from the turn of the century.

It's incredible to see the below photos, it makes so much more sense seeing everyone in color. So much less drab and sad, the bright clothes, the beautiful buildings, the hair... the flowers!! I WISH there was one of Egon Schiele. 

The first set are all from Etheldreda Laing’s Autochrome Garden Of Eden By Erin Kelly

"At the turn of the 20th century, photography was on the cusp of major transformation. The French Lumière brothers introduced the Autochrome process in 1907, and as the below images show, Etheldreda Laing was one of its early masters.

Laing had a strong attraction to photography, and having been enthralled by the hobby since the late 1890s. When Laing and her husband Major Charles Miskin Laing moved to Bury Knowle House in the Oxford district of Headington in 1899, she had a darkroom added to the property so she could develop her own images.

Upon the Lumières’ introduction of the Autochrome color process in 1907, Laing showed an immediate and avid interest. Beginning in 1908 and nearing her 40s, Laing took scores of pictures of her daughters Janet and Iris–primarily in the lush and colorful gardens of their Oxford home. The images may have been taken just after the Victorian age ended, but they elicit all the delicate grace of the era."

All the below photos are 1910-1914

"The following images, captured between 1907 and 1930, were taken using the autochrome Lumière process, an early method of photography that allowed artists to capture the world around them in its natural colours. It is believed that most of the pictures featured below were taken by Léon Gimpel, Stéphane Passet, Georges Chevalier, and Auguste Léon. Thanks to Nicolas Bonnell and his blog Paris Unplugged, we are now able to see what Paris looked like over 100 years ago." -Morgane Croissant