Francis Bruguière,The Golden Gate – The American Museum of Photography: Masterworks

---

---

Francis Bruguiere (U.S., 1879-1945): The Golden Gate

Autochrome, 5 x 7 inches, circa 1915

Bruguiere was a California member of the Photo-Secession who moved to New York and became a well-known theatrical producer. He created photographs in the Surrealist vein in the 1920s and later moved to England.

Autochromes are natural-color transparencies on glass, made on specially-prepared plates. The process was the first system of color photography to become a commercial success. It uses millions of grains of potato starch dyed in primary colors as light filters, creating a pointillist effect. Autochrome plates were invented by the Lumiere Brothers of France and marketed by their firm beginning in 1907. The plates were immediately popular with pictorialist photographers.

This glowing, soft-focus image was formerly in the collection of the photographer Immogen Cunningham.