Why are there more color pictures from Nazi Germany than the US during the same time period?

[raccoon]

(Or at least I've seen more of them on the Internet.)

[Kalidurga]

1. That is funny you should ask that. I don't know the answer.

Anyway I am looking at old family pictures and there are hardly any in color. Not until the late late 70's early 80's did color pictures start being a common thing. Black and whites didn't go away completely til about the mid 80's.

If I were to speculate I would say that a lot of Americans are frugal and not very sentimental yeah they want pictures and stuff, but they are going to go with the more economical ways of getting them.

[RichGirl]

9. A lot of pictures were...

...actually black and white and the color was painted on.

[Kalidurga]

25. That's cool

I have to say I do prefer color even if it might not be completely or even close to accurate.

[kcr]

15. I'd shift the timing back a bit. I was born in 72. All my baby and childhood pics are color

I don't recall anyone taking black and white photos in the 80s unless they were in photography class and using a dark room or something like that. Some pulpy magazines still only published in black and white back then.

[Brother Buzz]

2. IG Farben?

Agfa was a division of IG Farben.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Kodachrome and Agfacolor came out in the mid 30's and one is US the other German.

Neither had become widely used by the public prior to the war, then film stocks were limited and in Europe very strongly rationed. We did not have tons of color still stock and Allies used it primarily for intelligence photography while the Nazis were heavy into photo propaganda and thus lots of images in full color of the people and places of their glorious land, blah, blah, blah.
That's my theory. US market had not really gone color and then had no time to do so, European market all the film belonged to the Nazis, and they loved to take pictures.

[dinkytron]

26. I believe we have color shots of the Pacific theatre because after we defeated Germany,

we accessed their color film which was unavailable in the US.

[MADem]

4. Perhaps because Europeans were very advanced in a number of disciplines.

The Germans were miles ahead of us on rocket development, for example.

The French and Germans made some very sophisticated motion pictures when we were still trying to monetize the process.

History: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_photography_technology

[rug]

5. So they can see the blood better.

[closeupready]

6. Many people may not realize it, but the European states of the time

were actually far more advanced than the New World, pre-WWII. Germany was at the forefront of many scientific advances. It's where stuff was happening. So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that in terms of looking at cultural artifacts, it would appear they were really ahead of most other places.

But hey, times change. Cultures can and do become hell-bent on suicide. What can you do.

[flamin lib]

8. Master's Degree in Photography here. Kodachrome is based on the AGFA formula stolen

from Germany during WWII.

Both were a bizarre process of of three black and white emulsions on one substrate (red, green, blue). Each emulsion was developed in different chemistry before the fix and drying. Develop one emulsion, replace the silver crystals with dye, lather rinse and repeat three times. A real PIA for processors but the only to get full color at the time.

This is way oversimplified but ya' get my drift. The last processing plant for Kodachrome closed a few years ago. Digital photography has largely put film out of business for a number of reasons not the least of which are convenience and chemical pollution.

Although there are commercial films available the move is toward historical artisan processes like make-your-own black and white emulsions for both glass negatives and paper.

If a B&W photo is processed using archival methods it will still yield informational imaging after 10,000 years. Just think, if Edward Weston was around during Jesus' time we'd have great photos that aren't beginning to show fade! 'Course Jesus would be a brown skinned middle easterner . . .

[hunter]

12. I'm curious but too lazy to research if silver recycling played any part in it.

Most of the silver can be recovered in color film and print developing. The colored parts of the image are dyes. All the silver of the original photographic process is washed away.

In B&W film and prints the dark part of the image is composed of silver and stays in the film or print.

[flamin lib]

14. The silver is routinely recovered and has been since the technology became operable.

B&W also releases a lot of silver to be recovered. I doubt that has anything to do with the demise of film.

[hunter]

18. I was addressing the original question about color film in World War II.

Personally I love film, I used to have an enlarger, a dark room, everything. I collect old film cameras because it delights me to buy a camera I once desired in my youth for pocket change. I still develop film occasionally. But nearly all my photography is digital now.

[struggle4progress]

16. Kodachrome went on sale around 1935

[hunter]

21. The K-11 process of 1955 was almost certainly influenced by German technology...

... just as U.S. aerospace technology was.

A number of German scientists had landed at Kodak as refugees in the 'thirties, and more followed after the war.

For example:

DR. ARNOLD WEISSBERGER DIES; CHEMIST FOR EASTMAN KODAK

By GLENN FOWLER
Published: September 7, 1984

Dr. Arnold Weissberger, a chemist for the Eastman Kodak Company who played a major role in the development of color photography, died of heart disease last Sunday at Genesee Hospital in Rochester. He was 85 years old and lived in Rochester.

Dr. Weissberger, a refugee from Nazi Germany who joined Eastman Kodak in 1936, had his name on more than 100 patents, mostly dealing with the manufacturing of color film and methods for developing film.

In 1940, he invented a developer that did not irritate the skin, encouraging amateurs to develop film. Sharper Pictures

Dr. Wesley T. Hanson, former director of research for Kodak, who headed the company's color photography division in the years following World War II, said yesterday that Dr. Weissberger's inventions ''vastly improved the colors of the dyes used in Kodak film, making them more stable and producing sharper pictures.''

--more--

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/07/obituaries/dr-arnold-weissberger-dies-chemist-for-eastman-kodak.html

[calikid]

22. Very intresting, thanks for the post.

You brought to mind, my wife and I are hosting a Weston showing this fall of about 75 prints, it should be fun.

[flamin lib]

23. Weston said,

"A black and white photograph can reveal the essence of what lies before the photographer's lens with such clarity that the image becomes more real than the subject itself."

I see him as a mixed bag. He kept and promoted some real dog photos because they were of his girlfriend, a Mexican B actress that was not all that hot but he left his wide and kids for her anyway. The original American Bohemian.

[Glassunion]

10. More importantly, with all that funding we have given NASA over the past several decades, and not 1

damn color photo of the moon... It's 2016 people, we should have color photos of the moon already. It's right there.

[skypilot]

11. This thread reminds me of...

...this old Calvin and Hobbes strip:

[Blue_Tires]

13. Bloody brilliant

[Lizzie Poppet]

17. One of my all time favorite C&H strips!

And that's really saying something, as I consider Calvin and Hobbes to be the greatest comic strip ever...

[Shankapotomus]

19. I think it might be because,

at the time, Hitler was the most photographed (or filmed) person. So there is probably more b&w film from then from Germany, as well.

[JackRiddler]

20. Color or colorized?

[daleo]

24. Documentary footage of the U.S. war in the Pacific seems often to be in color

But rarely so for the European theatre.

[valerief]

27. Color processing may have been more affordable in Germany than the U.S.

Because...pigs.