iconic black and white photos photoshopped in colour


sanna dullaway uses photoshop to bring colour to some of the most iconic historical black-and-white photographs, as in this portrait of anne frank

swedish artist sanna dullaway renders iconic black-and-white photographs in colour, utilizing primarily photoshop CS 5. dullaway, who offers a recolouring and restoration service for old photographs, undertook the works– alongside processing old family photos– as a personal project.

already controversial, raising questions of the reappropriation of culturally significant imagery, as well as the boundaries of what classifies something as art, the recoloured photographs are also technically striking, generally achieving a colour and climate that is not only realistic but also largely consistent with the tonalities achievable or popular at the time. each piece takes approximately two to three hours to finish.

editor’s note: designboom has removed many of the photographs included in the original post, some of which are referenced  in the comments below, at the request of the artist as a result of copyright claims by the rightsholders of the original photographs.

portrait of abraham lincoln

portrait of august strindberg

original photo: ‘a harvest of death’ at the battle of gettysburg, by timothy o’sullivan

photograph from liverpool’s canada dock, 1909, featuring first chieef engineer of mauretania john currie

via petapixel, via mashkulture