Harold A. Taylor’s Autochromes of California Flowers (early 20th century) – The Public Domain Review

Despite his range of subjects, it was the flowers that were perhaps closest to Taylor’s heart. Photographing flowers embedded in California’s lush nature – growing wild in fields and thickets, planted in flower beds, dressing orderly Victorian gardens – his most striking images are those of cut flowers being moved indoors for studio treatment. Having developed an early colorization method, Taylor was among the first generation of photographers to experiment with color autochroming, a technology well employed in his floral works, which often take the form of projectable lantern slides. Against a dark background, his botanical works are distinctly dramatic: tenderly lit, but with the seriousness of a formal, seated portrait. They are picturesque, nostalgic and somehow solemn. As Grace Linden writes, “the tones of autochromes always feel more real than reality.” This is especially true of Taylor’s work, which emphasizes the intensity of indigo and vermilion more vividly than anywhere else in nature.