Rare and Amazing Color Photographs From the First World War

The autochrome, more formally known as the Autochrome Lumière, was attributed to two brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière — French photographers also credited with the invention of early motion-picture equipment. Although other innovators had discovered ways to bring color to images through tint and screen processing, the autochrome, debuting in 1904, utilized a number of emulsion layers locking in natural color on a permanent glass negative.

We're always jolted when we encounter vivid color photographs from the decades that we have collectively consigned to monochromatic grays. Sometimes these colors derive from a colorized restoration; at other times, we discover a world of color in the bowels of an old camera, locked in the emulsion of slide film in a machine lost, abandoned or forgotten decades earlier.

And sometimes, with luck, we stumble upon scenes from a "pre-color" era captured with experimental color processes. The vibrant photos from World War I posted in this gallery are examples of this surprisingly variegated, many-hued world.

A French soldier, circa 1915. (©Mark Jacobs Archive /The Image Works)

View of Verdun after 8 months of bombing, September 1916. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

French Gunners receive instruction, 1916. (©TopFoto / The Image Works)

The remains of a dead French soldier and his gun rest under a tree on the Western Front in France. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

French soldiers of the 370th Infantry Regiment eat soup during the battle of the Aisne in 1917. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

French Artillery soldiers are shown at the entrance of their shelter on the Western Front. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

A French soldier with an acoustic listening device capable of tracking aircraft on the Western Front. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

A French section of machine gunners take positions in the ruins during the battle of the Aisne in 1917. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

A crater caused by the explosion of 19 mines placed underneath German positions near Messines in West Flanders by the British on June 7, 1917. A total of about 10,000 soldiers died, amongst them almost all of the 3rd Royal Bavarian Division. The blast was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all times and was audible in Dublin and London. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

Nine French soldiers investigate a fatally injured horse on the Western Front. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

The corpse of a French soldier of the 99th infantry regiment, who was poisoned during a German gas attack on March 23, 1918 and died eight days later of pneumonia. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

The wreck of a German tank, which was destroyed during a battle on the Western Front. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

A little girl plays with her doll in Reims, France in 1917. Two guns and a knapsack are next to her on the ground. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

French officers of the 370th Infantry Regiment pose in the ruins after a German attack at the Chemin des Dames near Reims in 1917. They have a bicycle and the flag of the 370th Infantry Regiment. The region was one of the worst battle grounds on the Western Front during World War I. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

A soldier in uniform with three medals stands next to a cannon in Paris in 1918. His left leg has been replaced by an artificial limb. (©R Schultz Collection / The Image Works)

(via Time.com)