Phillip Prodger is Executive Director of Curatorial Exhibitions, Pasadena, California. He was formerly Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Photography
Left: Addie Card, 12 Years Old, Spinner in cotton mill, North Pownal, Vermont (1910), Lewis Hine. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Right: Digital colourisation of Lewis Hine’s photograph of Addie Card by Marina Amaral. Photo: © Marina Amaral

Does the past look better in black and white?

Photographers and film-makers have long added colour to their images – but does the current craze for colourisation create a false impression of olden times?

11 Mar 2021

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December 2021

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Cece Bibby (left) painting the name ‘Friendship 7’ on John Glenn’s Mercury spacecraft in 1962.

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Penitent Mary Magdalene (c. 1625–26), Artemisia Gentileschi. Private collection

Has a long-lost Artemisia finally come to light?

Painted in around 1625, the Penitent Mary Magdalene inspired a host of copies before disappearing. Now, it has resurfaced in a private collection

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