Chromatic Modernity – Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s

In Chromatic Modernity, Sarah Street and Joshua Yumibe provide a fascinating history of the use of colour in film and consumer goods during the 1920s. They contextualise colour's role in film, other art forms and consumer culture to produce a comprehensive, comparative study that situates colour cinema firmly within the culture of its time. With advances in technology, the use of colour surged internationally and was applied to consumer goods, buildings, magazines, neon advertisements and theatrical performances creating an exciting, chromatically rich visual culture.

The use of colour was not without its controversies, and the authors examine the intense debates during this period about colour and its artistic, scientific, philosophical and educational significance. Drawing on archives in the history of film, popular culture and advertising, the authors consider such topics as the rise of the 'colour consultant', the gendered nature of colour, ideas of colour psychology and consciousness in advertising and fashion, the standardisation and experimentation of colour in popular and avant-garde film and how the rise of sound in cinema changed the use of colour in film. Ultimately, the authors argue that this expansion of colour across the international media environment demonstrates the extent to which it was forging new ways of looking at and experiencing the modern world.