Jules Gervais-Courtellemont

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863–1931) was a French photographer who was famous for taking color autochromes during World War I.

After experiments with monochrome photography, he adopted the Lumière brothers' Autochrome system, which went on sale in June 1907.

[2] Between 1923 and 1925 he wrote a three-volume work entitled La Civilisation – Histoire sociale de l'humanité, illustrated with his photographs.

While over 5,500 Gervais-Courtellemont autochromes survive in various institutional collections, including the Musée Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt and the Cinémathèque Robert-Lynen [fr] in central Paris, his work in private hands is quite rare and sought after.

Courtellemont's work displays a tight sense of composition, an acute awareness of the interplay of light on color, and a haunting familiarity of symbolism.