The Colour of time
A vivid collection of a century in photographs
Author Dan Jones & Marina amaral Publisher apollo Price: £25 Released Out now
Brazilian artist Marina Amaral has become internet famous for her colourised archive photos (sample her work on Twitter @marinamaral2). The Colour Of Time collects together iconic shots from the 19th century to the mid-20th century treated by Amaral, while popular historian Dan Jones (author of The Templars – see page 39) provides cultural and political context.
The starting point of the book coincides roughly with the advent of the photograph, where the blackand-white images have been carefully rendered into full colour by Amaral. Recolouring techniques have advanced dramatically in recent years and decades, a development that lends portraits of people like Tsar Alexander II, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln a sense of presence, intimacy and immediacy. The selection of images is also different to the many famous portraits you’ll usually encounter. Some offer a warmer, more everyday glance at often-elevated characters, while others subject you to the real horror of war and disasters throughout the 110 years covered in the book. There are some truly graphic images you won’t have seen in your usual history literature, but their shock factor thankfully feels measured and deliberate rather than gratuitous.
What also elevates The Colour Of
Time above regular coffee table fare is the startling vivacity and impact of the photographs chosen, and the concise but focused and gripping texts by Jones, making the book a worthwhile coverto-cover read as much as it serves as a showcase book to dip into at will.