Colour photography

Edito

Colour entered art photography slowly. For much of the twentieth century, black and white remained closely associated with serious photographic practice, while colour was still largely linked to advertising, magazines and amateur photography.

William Eggleston, Franco Fontana, Saul Leiter, Harry Gruyaert and Dolorès Marat were among the photographers who demonstrated how radically colour could alter the photographic image. In their work, it becomes a way of organising space, directing attention and transforming ordinary scenes.

Together, these documentaries trace four distinct ways in which colour became a photographic language rather than simply a property of the world being photographed.

5 films
5 h 26 min
Edito, 1 min read

86’

William Eggleston｜By the Ways

France - 2007 en en • es

The mythical colours of William Eggleston • The singularity of a photographic vision that has left its mark on history.

Eggleston made colour inseparable from his way of looking at everyday America. Cars, signs, interiors and roadside details acquire a new intensity through saturated tones and carefully balanced compositions. His photographs helped establish colour as a language in its own right within contemporary photography.

28’

Franco Fontana | Creative Horizon

Italy - 2012 en en

Color as an act of framing: Franco Fontana, from landscape to abstraction.

For Franco Fontana, colour becomes one of the fundamental structures of the image. Landscapes are reduced to planes, lines and blocks of saturated colour, pushing photography towards abstraction and making the act of framing as important as the subject itself.

75’

Saul Leiter | In No Great Hurry

United Kingdom - 2012 fr [cc]

Unveiling the art and life lessons of a photography legend.

Saul Leiter began experimenting with colour transparencies in the late 1940s, decades before his colour work received widespread recognition. Reflections, fogged windows, patches of red and yellow and partially obscured figures turn the streets of New York into layered compositions that often sit between photography and painting.

65’

Harry Gruyaert, photographer

Belgium - 2018 fr en [cc]

A master of colour at work...

For Harry Gruyaert, colour structures the gaze as much as it intensifies reality. Contrasts, shadows, light and strong tonal relationships give his urban scenes and landscapes a carefully constructed tension, where composition often takes precedence over narrative.

70’

Dolorès Marat | Dolorès

France - 2022 fr en

Delving into the essence of photography through an artistic lens.

For Dolorès Marat, colour becomes a deeply personal language. Through blurred figures, the fleeting light of the blue hour and the distinctive textures of Fresson prints, she transforms ordinary scenes into enigmatic, almost dreamlike images.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone

Linked Articles

by Romane Fragne

William Eggleston: America Next Door

linked to William Eggleston｜By the Ways

The documentary By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston, directed by Vincent Gérard and Cédric Laty, opens with a strange solemnity. A baroque suite by Bach played on the harpsichord accompanies images of desolate landscapes in the southern United States,empty roads and abandoned buildings. On…

Saul Leiter: Lessons in life from a man of nuance

by Emmanuel Bacquet

Saul Leiter: Lessons in life from a man of nuance

linked to Saul Leiter | In No Great Hurry

The work of Saul Leiter was rediscovered, with his street photographs brought to light in the 1990s.His photos of New York (from as early as 1948) earned him a significant reputation in the latter years of his life, especially for his use of colour. Yet in the film devoted to him by Tomas Leach, he…

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

William Eggleston | By the Ways

• William Eggleston, William Eggleston's Guide, Museum of Modern Art, 2002. Publisher · Libraries

• William Eggleston, William Eggleston: For Now, Twin Palms Publishers, 2010. Publisher · Libraries

• William Eggleston, William Eggleston, From Black and White to Color, Steidl, 2014. Libraries

• William Eggleston : Mystery of the Ordinary, Steidl & C/O Berlin, 2023. Libraries

Franco Fontana | Creative Horizon

• Corrado Benigni and Mauro Zanchi (eds.), Franco Fontana. Dietro l'invisibile, Silvana Editoriale, 2018. Publisher · Libraries

• Franco Fontana, Claude Nori and Helmut Gernsheim, Skyline, Éditions Contrejour, 2013. Libraries

• Franco Fontana, America, Éditions Contrejour, 2020. Libraries

• Franco Fontana, Invisible, Five Continents Editions, 2022/2023. Publisher · Libraries

• Franco Fontana, Franco Fontana. Retrospective, Contrasto, 2025. Publisher · Libraries

Saul Leiter | In No Great Hurry

• Margit Erb, Pauline Vermare and Motoyuki Shibata, All about Saul Leiter, Rm, 2018. Libraries

• Saul Leiter, Robert Benton and Carole Naggar, In My Room, Steidl Verlag, 2018. Publisher · Libraries

• Brigitte Woischnik (ed.), Saul Leiter: Retrospektive / Retrospective, Kehrer Verlag, 2015. Publisher · Libraries

• Max Kozloff and Jane Livingston, Saul Leiter Early Black and White, Steidl Verlag, 2014. Libraries

• Saul Leiter and Martin Harrison, Early Color, Steidl Verlag, 2006. Libraries

• Max Kozloff, Saul Leiter, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2008.

Harry Gruyaert, photographer

• Harry Gruyaert, India, Atelier EXB, 2020. Publisher · Libraries

• Harry Gruyaert, Harry Gruyaert, Textuel, 2015. Publisher · Libraries

• Harry Gruyaert, Maroc, Textuel, 2013. Publisher · Libraries

• Harry Gruyaert, Roots : Belgique 1970 - 1980, Xavier Barral, 2012. Publisher · Libraries

• Harry Gruyaert, TV Shots, Steidl Verlag, 2007. Libraries

• Harry Gruyaert, Harry Gruyaert, Actes Sud, 2006.

Online

• William Eggleston, Memphis, 1971-72, MoMA.

• William Eggleston: the wonder of hue, The Guardian, 2010.

• Color, Saul Leiter Foundation.

• Harry Gruyaert's best photograph: waiting for a Belgian parade, Sarah Phillips, The Guardian, 2012.

• Franco Fontana: Sintesi, Interview, Paola Sammartano, The Eye of Photography, 2019.

Instagram

The Focuses

Check all focus