Newsflash:

We’re open every day except Good Friday, 29 March. View our Easter opening hours here ›

Colour In Darkness: Images from the First World War

Colour In Darkness: Images from the First World War

In the early 1920s, an exhibition of war photographs toured Australia, attracting crowds and enthusiastic reviews. Most of the photographs were taken by Australian personnel who served at Gallipoli, in the Middle East and on the Western Front. The photographs were enlarged and hand-coloured by ‘digger artists’ at Colarts Studios from smaller snapshots. In most cases, we don’t know the names of the photographers, nor the returned servicemen who coloured the images, but we do know that the exhibition was a tremendous success.

PAST EXHIBITIONExhibition
Saturday 25 June 2016 to Sunday 21 August 2016
Admission: Free

Location

Colour In Darkness: Images from the First World War

In the early 1920s, an exhibition of war photographs toured Australia, attracting crowds and enthusiastic reviews. Most of the photographs were taken by Australian personnel who served at Gallipoli, in the Middle East and on the Western Front. The photographs were enlarged and hand-coloured by ‘digger artists’ at Colarts Studios from smaller snapshots. In most cases, we don’t know the names of the photographers, nor the returned servicemen who coloured the images, but we do know that the exhibition was a tremendous success.

Some 90 years after the original exhibition toured the country, these prints — which came to the Library in the 1960s — are displayed together in Colour in Darkness.  

a187034_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

Photographer unknown. 

 

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne

The Light Horse returning to the coast of Phonecia
1915-1918
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187034
View collection item detail
a187052_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

Photographer unknown.

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne.

Gas About [German prisoners]
1915-1918
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187052
View collection item detail
a187010_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

Photographer: Walter Ernest Dexter

This photograph is the third panel of a tryptich.

 

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne

Anzac Cove and New Zealand Point, looking north
1915-1918
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187010
View collection item detail
a187012_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

Photographer unknown.

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne.

C Company, 8th Battalion AIF, at foot of pyramid Cheops Egypt in 1914
1914
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187012
View collection item detail
a187047_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

 

Photographer unknown.

Neither the pilot nor the observer of this plane was injured. In fact, the house was the greatest sufferer, as only the under-carriage of the plane was damaged.

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne

A remarkable crash
1915-1918
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187047
View collection item detail
a187056_colourdark_1.jpg
About this item: 

 

Photographer unknown. 

The pictorial panorama of the Great War: embracing Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, France, Belgium, Germany and the Navy -- from an exhibition of war photographs in natural colour / produced by Colarts Studios, Melbourne

A Corner of Villers-Bretonneux
1915-1918
Colarts Studios, Melbourne
Digital ID: 
a187056
View collection item detail

Meet the curator

Reviving "The Pictorial Panorama of the Great War"

Hand-coloured photographs by ‘digger artists’ are displayed together for the first time in almost 100 years.
Show more