My Colorful Past: "Bridging a gap between history and art using photo colorization"

My Colorful Past: "Bridging a gap between history and art using photo colorization"
(Image credit: Lewis Hine / My Colorful Past)

Whether you consider it art, science or somewhere in-between, the process of photo colorization is more than just an interesting technical feat or an act of visual expression; it's a way to breathe life into our history, and transform the color-free faces of the past into real, relatable people. 

This is the work that has consumed Matthew Loughrey, the man behind My Colorful Past, for the past four years. What started with an innocent question from his little boy burgeoned into a quest to restore color to historic photographs and film reels spanning the gamut from the American Civil War to the NASA space program. 

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James Artaius
Editor

The editor of Digital Camera World, James has 21 years experience as a journalist and started working in the photographic industry in 2014 (as an assistant to Damian McGillicuddy, who succeeded David Bailey as Principal Photographer for Olympus). In this time he shot for clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal, in addition to shooting campaigns and product testing for Olympus, and providing training for professionals. This has led him to being a go-to expert for camera and lens reviews, photo and lighting tutorials, as well as industry news, rumors and analysis for publications like Digital Camera MagazinePhotoPlus: The Canon MagazineN-Photo: The Nikon MagazineDigital Photographer and Professional Imagemaker, as well as hosting workshops and talks at The Photography Show. He also serves as a judge for the Red Bull Illume Photo Contest. An Olympus and Canon shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes – and a fondness for vintage lenses and instant cameras.