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This issue of PhotoResearcher centers the role of the Lumière brothers’ Autochrome in global colonial and political contexts. The impetus behind creating “The Autochrome in Imperial History” is the Tassilo Adam Collection, housed at Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna. Adam, a plantation manager and photographer in the Dutch East Indies, gifted the photography collection, including his Autochromes, to the Weltmuseum Wien in 1940. A handful of these Autochromes depict the lavish estate of Karl Bosscha in Java, Indonesia. Their representation marks a shift in the conventional colonial gaze, turning inwards, by meticulously showcasing the European settler’s domestic sphere. This volume distinguishes itself from prior scholarship on the Autochrome by prioritizing the medium’s political deployment over poetic or aesthetic interpretations. The global perspectives presented through various case studies span cases across Iceland, Great Britain, the Russian Empire, colonial Indonesia, the United States of America, the French Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They demonstrate the Autochrome’s function as an instrument of imperial modernity, facilitating both the creation and dissemination of colonial viewpoints and the documentation of the empire’s aftermath. 

Read the editorial for free here. 

Table of Content

• Editorial, by Hanin Hannouch
• Housing Privileges: Tassilo Adam’s Autochromes of the Bosscha Estate in Java, by Hanin Hannouch
• Autochromes for Empire: J. C. Warburg at the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, by Janine Freeston
• Extracting the View: Fred Payne Clatworthy’s Autochromes of the American West, by Rachel Lee Hutcheson
• The Autochrome in Iceland: Colour Photography on the Far Periphery of Europe, by Inga Lára Baldvinsdóttir
• The Reception of the Autochrome in the Russian Empire around 1900, by Nadezhda Stanulevich
• Between Center and Periphery: Autochrome Photography Through the History of Present-Day Slovakia, by Kitti Baráthová, Katarína Beňová & Janka Blaško Križanová
• Pepper’s Ghost. A Living Autochrome, by Bronwyn Lace & Anna Seiderer

The Autochrome in Imperial History: Color Photography’s Global Entanglements. Edited by: Dr. Hanin Hannouch / PhotoResearcher No. 44, 2025
Orders (physical journal or Pdf) to be sent to: office@eshph.org

This special issue of PhotoResearcher aims to inspire scholars, curators, and artists to reflect on photography festivals in an academic context and to investigate them as a phenomenon; a particular mode of presentation, circulation, and production of images.

Although photography festivals are not yet an established field of research in the history or theory of photography, readers of PhotoResearcher No. 43 will encounter a combination of international voices positioning festivals in a variety of socio-cultural settings: As engines of collaboration with local museums, as contributors to the visibility of the climate crisis, as engines of artistic production, etc. The inspiration behind this publication stems from the desire to honour the legacy of Belfast Photo Festival, which was founded back in 2009, and to take stock of how it changed the ecosystem which gave rise to it. Also, this collaborative publication expands BPF’s experiences through the journal’s authors and their unique perspectives in order to learn from them and to keep this unique form of experiencing photography alive and thriving.

PhotoResearcher No. 43
"Photography & Festivals: 15 Years Belfast Photo Festival"
Guest-editor: Michael Weir, CEO Belfast Photo Festival
Editor-in-chief: Dr. Hanin Hannouch, President of the European Society for the History of Photography 
Graphic Design: Bernhard Schorner
Image Editing: Robert Vanis

The journal’s editorial is open-access and can be downloaded here.

To order this special issue of PhotoResearcher: 
UK Residents order here or you can also visit Belfast Photo Festival's Photobook library in Botanic Gardens, Belfast from 5-30th June to buy a copy.
EU + Rest of the World Residents order here

Hannah Crowdy
New Resonances in Museum Collections: The Ulster Museum and Belfast Photo Festival

Vivienne Gamble
Vital Exchanges and Encounters: Photography Festivals and the City

Michael Weir in Conversation with Pål Otnes
Elective Affinities

Mafalda Ruão & Krzysztof Candrowicz
A Photography Festival Cosmology: On Social and Environmental Responsibility and Visual Activism

Toby Smith
Festivals as Climate Protest: An Opportunity?

Tom Seymour
The Future of Photography Festivals: A British-Irish Perspective

Founder Michael Weir in Conversation with Sebah Chaudhry
Looking Forward and Looking Back: 15 Years of Belfast Photo Festival

Louise Fedotov-Clements
Afterword