Fruit Still Life, 1893. Photography by William Kurtz (1833 - 1904).
Medium: Vogel-Kurtz color process halftone Publication: Josef Maria Eder, Geschichte der Photographie, Third edition, Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp, Halle, 1905, frontispiece Other Collections: Notes: Natural color printing in the Vogel-Kurtz process Photo taken from nature and printed in 3 colors on the fast press by W. Kurtz. Supplement to Vogel "The light in the service of photography" William Kurtz was first person to successfully demonstrate the use of three-color engraving and printing for the reproduction of a natural scene. His achievements were the culmination of a lifetime of work and perseverance. After spending his early adulthood in the military and employed on shipping vessels, Kurtz settled in New York and became perhaps the most famous photographer in New York City. He built a substantial fortune from his photography and engraving business. When Hermann Wilhelm Vogel's advances in color photography became known, Kurtz arranged to purchase the American rights to the "three-color process" from Vogel and was able to devise a way to apply it to halftone printing. In doing so, he—in conjunction with Vogel's son Ernst—was able to produce superior results and drive the cost of color printing down dramatically, so much so that Vogel himself acknowledged that Kurtz's adaptations had improved on his own discoveries. Using this process, Kurtz made the first color images that were widely reproduced—a still life of fruit on a table—being published in the January 1, 1893, edition of Photographische Mittheilungen, a German photography journal published by Vogel. The same image was later published in the in the March 1893 issue of Engraver & Printer.
Size: 3624px × 2676px
Photo credit: © Archive Farms. Inc / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: &, /, 1800s, 19th, archival, black, century, fruit, historical, history, kurtz, life, photograph, photography, phtl, sepia, white, william
