Edwardians In Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn (2007)

The Archive of the Planet was the brainchild of the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn. Between 1908 and 1930, he used his vast personal fortune to generate what is now generally acknowledged to be the most important collection of early colour photographs in the world. At the time Kahn embarked on this project, colour photography was still in its infancy. It was only a year before the Archive was created that the legendary French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumi�re had marketed the autochrome - the world's first user-friendly photographic system capable of taking true colour pictures.

Almost straight away, Kahn acquired one. It's not difficult to see why Kahn was so beguiled: the autochrome system produces images of mesmerising beauty. As an idealist and an internationalist, Kahn believed that he could use this system to promote peace and greater understanding among the world's cultures. So he spent a fortune to hire photographers and send them to
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Edwardians In Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn (2007)

The Archive of the Planet was the brainchild of the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn. Between 1908 and 1930, he used his vast personal fortune to generate what is now generally acknowledged to be the most important collection of early colour photographs in the world. At the time Kahn embarked on this project, colour photography was still in its infancy. It was only a year before the Archive was created that the legendary French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumi�re had marketed the autochrome - the world's first user-friendly photographic system capable of taking true colour pictures.

Almost straight away, Kahn acquired one. It's not difficult to see why Kahn was so beguiled: the autochrome system produces images of mesmerising beauty. As an idealist and an internationalist, Kahn believed that he could use this system to promote peace and greater understanding among the world's cultures. So he spent a fortune to hire photographers and send them to more than 50 countries all over the world. Altogether, they shot more than 72,000 colour pictures (as well as about 100 hours of film footage) recording everything from religious rituals and cultural practices to momentous political events all over the world.

They took the earliest known colour pictures in countries as far apart as Vietnam and Brazil, Mongolia and Norway, Japan and Benin. As pet projects go, this was very ambitious - and vastly expensive. Yet undaunted by the cost, Kahn bankrolled this enterprise for more than 20 years. Kahn's photographers undertook these intrepid expeditions without the global transit systems we take for granted today. Often, they arrived in these countries at crucial junctures in their history. For example, they recorded the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires - and the birth of completely new states in Europe and the Middle East. During World War I, Kahn's photographers observed soldiers as they cooked their meals and laundered their uniforms behind the front lines at The Battle of Verdun. They watched the world's most powerful men when they convened for the post-war negotiations at Versailles.

No doubt Kahn expected to have the financial wherewithal to sustain it indefinitely. But events delivered a hammer-blow to his plans. At the start of 1929, Kahn was still one of the richest men in Europe. But by the end of the year the Wall Street Crash had reduced the financial empire of one of Europe's most successful financiers to rubble.

Yet by then, Kahn had already amassed one of the most important photographic collections in the world. A century after he launched his project, Albert Kahn's dazzling pictures put colour into what we almost always think of as an exclusively monochrome age.


Episode Synopses

3/5: Europe on the Brink
BBC Four Thu 3 May, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)

This programme tells the story of Kahn's photographer Auguste L�on visit to Scandinavia in 1910, finding widespread deprivation and even famine. He also journeyed to Italy in 1913, and then to the Balkans, where he recorded the increasing volatility in Europe.


Technical Specs:

Video Bitrate: ~ 1615 KB/s
Video Codec: x264 (h264)
Resolution: 720x576 and 704x560 (mod16)
Aspect Ratio: 1.83:1
Framerate: 25 FPS (87709 Frames)
Average QP: ~ 24.00

Audio Bitrate: 160 KB/s (CBR)
Audio Codec: MP3
Channels: 2 @ Sampling Rate: 48 kHz
Subtitle: None available (don't ask for 'em)

No of Episode: 5
Size per Episode: ~ 746 MB
Length: ~ 00:58:30
Ripped by ashinc for mvgroup


Encode Note:

You will not be able to play them on stand alone divx/xvid player as I have used x264 codec to encode these beauties to maximise the quality of videos. Download CoreAVC or ffdshow and play it with either MPC or VLC player. Those grains that you'd notice in the films are originally in the tv streams and is the main reason why I opted for x264. I did my best to reach the original colour and grain levels. You've been warned, so please don't moan about not using xvid or divx.

Each episode will be uploaded on every alternatve day