Photographers have been finding creative ways to stylize images with color since long before digital RGB.
Back in the late 19th to early 20th century, one of these techniques was orotone, which involved printing an image on glass backed with gold-colored paint to create a shiny and luxurious golden appearance.
Perfected by ethnologist and photographer Edward S. Curtis around 1918, orotone – also known as Curt-Tones – were high-end prints that appealed to followers of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Article continues belowNow, Robert Mann Gallery in New York is displaying a collection of almost 100 of these exuberant creations in an exhibition called Gold Standards: The Art of the Orotone.
The orotone images on display cover all sorts of subjects, from beautiful landscapes to interesting architecture.
While the identities of many of the authors have been lost to time, some of the works were created by photographer and scientific inventor Arthur Clarence Pillsbury.
In 1906, Pillsbury set up shop in the newly established Yosemite National Park, where he photographed sites such as Vernal Falls and El Capitan, glorifying them with a golden glow. Ansel Adams would later immortalize these same sites, albeit in black-and-white images.
It’s fascinating to see how photographers were able to achieve such creative and lavish-looking images back when post-processing technologies were in their infancy.
Of course, these days, the orotone aesthetic can be easily achieved using tools such as Lightroom, although it’s the shiny effect that plays a large part in the viewing experience.
Gold Standards: The Art of the Orotone can be viewed in person and online until May 16. Public visiting hours at Robert Mann Gallery are Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. For additional hours, please make an appointment with the gallery.
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