Skip to main contentSkip to navigationClose dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle captionSkip to navigationPictures from the pastPhotographyThe first colour photograph, 1861Thomas Sutton collaborated with the theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell to take three separate exposures of a tartan ribbon through red, green and blue filters. The developed negatives were projected through separate magic lanterns, with the same coloured filters, on to a screen to create a single image at the Royal Institution in London and the principle of colour photography was bornA 1930s Vivex colour print made from James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Sutton's original 1861 tri-colour negatives of a tartan ribbon. Sutton went on to invent the first single lens reflex camera and the first wide-angle lens while Maxwell's theories on electromagnetism, thermodynamics and colour are some of the most important in the history of physicsIllustration: Photograph: Thomas Sutton/ James Clerk Maxwell/ SSPL via Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenA 1930s Vivex colour print made from James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Sutton's original 1861 tri-colour negatives of a tartan ribbon. Sutton went on to invent the first single lens reflex camera and the first wide-angle lens while Maxwell's theories on electromagnetism, thermodynamics and colour are some of the most important in the history of physicsIllustration: Photograph: Thomas Sutton/ James Clerk Maxwell/ SSPL via Getty ImagesRanjit DhaliwalTue 9 Jul 2013 13.54 BSTShareExplore more on these topics
