12.07.2021-12.23.2021
The Alps in Photochrom
In collaboration with Lightmotif, L'Exemplaire is pleased to invite you to the exhibition "The Alps in Photochrom".
Halfway between photography and lithography, this complex process was developed by the Swiss lithographer Hans Jacob Schmid after countless hours of trial and error. It was patented in 1888 and then marketed by Photoglob in Zurich.
This technique implies successive prints without screen, each color requiring the use of a different lithographic stone. It exploits the photosensitivity of Judean bitumen, already discovered by Nicéphore Niépce, inventor of photography.
The photochroms were welcomed as sensational objects by the public of the time and for decades, this secret process was the most efficient for the mass production of high quality color reproductions. Production stopped with the First World War, but the process continued to be used, mainly for art reproductions.