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Every
picture tells
a story Doukhobor museum finds treasure by Greg Nesteroff |
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THE
IMAGES ARE STRIKING:
three dozen jam factory workers sit down at a long table for lunch;
well-dressed visitors inspect brick drying sheds and a peculiar
cable conveyor; a kerchief-clad woman works an old-fashioned loom.
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All are rare, early scenes of Doukhobor settlement in Canada, and all in bright pastel hues. Once dismissed as insignificant and locked away in storage, these photographs now form a major new exhibit at the Doukhobor Village Museum in Castlegar. |
Most are presented in colour for the first time, and many have never been seen at all. There are several intriguing mysteries about them: Where did they come from? When were they taken? And who is that mysterious woman in several of them? |
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The photos are known as autochromes, an early colour process that used dyed starch grains to capture images on threeby-four inch glass plates. These could be projected onto a wall using a gas lantern, the forerunner of today's slide projectors.
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