This Week in Photography History
The first color photograph produced on January 20, 1861 by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, better known for formulating the theory of electromagnetism. He created this image of a ribbon by having three photos taken of the ribbon through color filters – one red, one green, and one blue. He then superimposed these images on one screen using three projectors filtered for red, green and blue. His demonstration proved the red-green-blue system of coloring and led to creation of film sensitive to color.