📅 26 November 2025 – 11 October 2026
🎯 NTNU University Museum, Trondheim (Norway)
🎨 Curated by Catlin Langford
In collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Colourlab at NTNU, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD), and the PERCEIVE project.
Exploring the fragile beauty of early colour photography
What are autochromes? Why do they look the way they do, and how can we best preserve them?
Developed in 1907, the Autochrome Lumière was the first commercially successful colour photography process — a true revolution in the history of photography. These glass plates, celebrated for their luminous, painterly qualities, captured the world in colour for the first time.
Today, autochromes are rare and highly valued objects in museum collections. Their dyes are extremely light-sensitive and unstable, meaning the colours can fade or shift when exposed to light or humidity. Because of their fragility, original autochrome plates are seldom displayed to the public.
The exhibition Fragile Colours: Perceiving and Experiencing the Autochrome explores these delicate photographs through both physical and digital experiences. Visitors are invited to reflect on how we perceive, exhibit, and access fragile cultural heritage — and to discover how new technologies can bring lost colours back to life.
As part of the PERCEIVE Horizon Europe project, researchers have studied the unique materiality and ageing of autochromes, developing digital methods for restoration and virtual exhibition. This research is part of PERCEIVE’s broader mission: to advance how we understand, preserve, and experience coloured cultural heritage through technology and sensory perception.
Official opening
📅 26 November 2025 – 19:00
🎯 NTNU University Museum, Trondheim (Norway)
The opening will now take place at 7:00 PM, allowing a wider audience to attend and celebrate the launch of Fragile Colours.
Conference: Fragile Colours – Perceiving and Experiencing Autochromes
📅 1 December 2025
⏰ 10:00 – 16:30
🎯 Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London
📍 Hochhauser Auditorium, Level 1 Learning Centre
🎟️ Free event – booking required
This one-day conference at the V&A brings together researchers and practitioners to share insights from the PERCEIVE project. Focusing on the Autochrome Lumière process, it highlights innovative approaches to studying, restoring, and exhibiting early colour photography.
Credits Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum: F. A. Paneth, Tromsø (Norway): Harbor, 21 August 1911, autochrome, V&A, RPS.795-2020 Production supported by Bounce.
