HANDCOLOR: When People painted on Camera's Photographs
Darcy Gimaldo Grigsby, Professor
Art History
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
HANDCOLOR is a meditation on the strange tenderness of handcolored photographs. Although I consider professional studio work, I focus on amateur practice of painting directly onto black and white photographs from the 1860s to 1950s.
HANDCOLOR is now in preparation for publication in Spring 2027 by the George Eastman Museum (Rochester, N.Y.) There are many tasks involved in finalizing a book for publication: required information that needs to be researched; caption details, design questions, etc.
Role: TASKS:Assistance researching the photographs' country of origin, dates, and inscriptions usually on their backs. Conducting Primary and secondary research online; use of Interlibrary Loan; research of images online. Gathering of bibliography, annotated bibliography and compilation of sources.
Qualifications: My project is wide-ranging and does not require specific expertise. That said, I could use assistance with my Russian, Eastern European and Egyptian handcolored photographs, handcolored African-American photographs and also a group of handcolored photographs of Native American children in Arizona. Students interested in early uses of color in film would also be welcome.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Arts & Humanities Social Sciences 150 Years of Women at Berkeley