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Books and Arts

Nature 451, 630 (7 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451630a; Published online 6 February 2008

Exhibition: Capturing colours of times past

Laura Spinney1

EXHIBIT REVIEWEDLéon Gimpel

In these days of digital cameras and Photoshop, it is hard to imagine the wonder that instant photography and the first colour photographs inspired. It comes as a revelation to witness a landscape striped by lightning in daylight through the eyes of the photographer who first captured it; to stand beside him in a mocking crowd, as he points a camera at fireworks exploding in the night sky; or to feel his embarrassment as he asks the King and Queen of Denmark to hold their poses for a few seconds.