History is never that black and white. It is always full of depth, shades, light and colour. So why should old and historical black and white photographs be left in the dark? It is high time someone shed light onto them, and give them the richness of colour that they deserve.

An entire new art form has emerged over the past few years which does just that. Photographic colourists transform virtually any old photograph into a vivid array of colour and meaning. They use a combination of research, imagination and artistry to bring new life to something long past. When these artists apply their skills to history, some amazing things start to happen.

How about a relook through a new lense at some slices of man’s past …

Union Soldiers (1863)

A group of Union Soldiers pose for the camera two years into the bloody American Civil War which still had another two years to run.

Charles Darwin (1874)

A Woodbury type carte de visite photograph of evolutionary genius Charles Darwin

Mark Twain (1900)

The American humorist Mark Twain sits resolutely in a tranquil garden in 1900.

Wilbur Wright (1903)

Wilbur Wright lies inside his damaged Wright Flyer plane after an unsuccessful trial on 14 December 1903. Imagine if he had given up?

Charlie Chaplin (1916)

Then 27 year-old Charlie Chaplin in a portrait which looks like it was taken yesterday.

Albert Einstein (1921)

A 42 year-old Einstein gives a lecture with a dreamy brilliance in his eyes.

Fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons (1927)

Of the 29 scientists in the picture below at a conference to discuss quantum theory, 17 went on to win Nobel Prizes. Notably, Albert Einstein sits at the front center.

Albert Einstein (1939)

The archetypal genius relaxes on the shore at Long Island.

Winston Churchill (1941)

The wartime Prime Minister looks steadfast in a picture taking during World War II.

Marilyn Monroe (1953)

This famous portrait of the American beauty was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt (in black and white, of course).

Elizabeth Taylor (1956)

Exquisite Elizabeth Taylor’s seductive eyes now have a new shade of green as they follow you from any direction you look.

Lee Harvey-Oswald (1963)

The assassin of US President John F Kennedy comes back to vivid reality in this reworked picture where he is led by police through a corridor in the Dallas Police Station, 23 November 1963.

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