Twenties in Colour
The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn
(2007)

bbc.co.uk
<table width="500"><tr><td align="justify">Information
The Archive of the Planet was the brainchild of the millionaire French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn. Between 1908 and 1930, he used his vast personal fortune to generate what is now generally acknowledged to be the most important collection of early colour photographs in the world. At the time Kahn embarked on this project, colour photography was still in its infancy. It was only a year before the Archive was created that the legendary French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumi�re had marketed the autochrome - the world's first user-friendly photographic system capable of taking true colour pictures.
Almost straight away, Kahn acquired one. It's not difficult to see why Kahn was so beguiled: the autochrome system produces images of mesmerising beauty. As an idealist and an internationalist, Kahn believed that he could use this system to promote peace and greater understanding among the world's cultures. So he spent a fortune to hire photographers and send them to more than 50 countries all over the world. Altogether, they shot more than 72,000 colour pictures (as well as about 100 hours of film footage) recording everything from religious rituals and cultural practices to momentous political events all over the world.
They took the earliest known colour pictures in countries as far apart as Vietnam and Brazil, Mongolia and Norway, Japan and Benin. As pet projects go, this was very ambitious - and vastly expensive. Yet undaunted by the cost, Kahn bankrolled this enterprise for more than 20 years. Kahn's photographers undertook these intrepid expeditions without the global transit systems we take for granted today. Often, they arrived in these countries at crucial junctures in their history. For example, they recorded the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires - and the birth of completely new states in Europe and the Middle East. During World War I, Kahn's photographers observed soldiers as they cooked their meals and laundered their uniforms behind the front lines at The Battle of Verdun. They watched the world's most powerful men when they convened for the post-war negotiations at Versailles.
No doubt Kahn expected to have the financial wherewithal to sustain it indefinitely. But events delivered a hammer-blow to his plans. At the start of 1929, Kahn was still one of the richest men in Europe. But by the end of the year the Wall Street Crash had reduced the financial empire of one of Europe's most successful financiers to rubble.
Yet by then, Kahn had already amassed one of the most important photographic collections in the world. A century after he launched his project, Albert Kahn's dazzling pictures put colour into what we almost always think of as an exclusively monochrome age.
::Episode Synopses::
1/9: A Vision of the World
BBC Four 4 Thu 19 Apr, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)
This programme tells the story of Albert Kahn, and the invention of the autochrome, the camera system that made colour photography possible and shows the pictures Kahn's photographers shot in 1913, when they made their first visit to London, Cornwall and Ireland.
2/9: Men of the World
BBC Four Thu 26 Apr, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)
This programme tells the story of two of the most ambitious of all the early global expeditions undertaken by the project - the circumnavigation of the globe by Albert
Kahn and his chauffeur Alfred Dutertre in 1908-9 (in which they visited the USA, Japan and China); and the epic 1913 journey by one of Kahn's photographers, St�phane Passet, to China, Mongolia and India.
3/9: Europe on the Brink
BBC Four Thu 3 May, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)
This programme tells the story of Kahn's photographer Auguste L�on visit to Scandinavia in 1910, finding widespread deprivation and even famine. He also journeyed to Italy in 1913, and then to the Balkans, where he recorded the increasing volatility in Europe.
4/9: The Soldiers' Story: The War
BBC Four Thu 10 May, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)
During the First World War, Kahn dispatched his photographers to the battlefields, where they recorded in detail the everyday lives of French troops fighting on the Western Front. This programme shows the images they captured as they journeyed through Eastern France.
5/9. The Civilians' Story
BBC Four Thu 17 May, 2007, 21:00-22:00 (BST)
Throughout The Great War, Kahn's photographers travelled throughout France, documenting the impact of the conflict on non-combatants in the towns and villages of their homeland. Using the striking images captured by Kahn's photographers, this programme looks at the hardship and heroism of the French population living near the front lines of the conflict.
Part 6/9: Europe After the Fire
First Aired on BBC Four, Thu 8 Nov 2007, 20:00-21:00
Series examining Albert Kahn's ambitious Archives of the Planet project, in which he sent photographers, armed with the world's first user-friendly colour photographic system, around the world to document all aspects of human life.
When the Armistice was signed in November 1918, Kahn's team photographed the scenes of jubilation in Paris as they witnessed the negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference and recorded the horrifying aftermath of four years of war.
7/9: Middle East the Birth of Nations
First Aired on BBC Four, Thu 15 Nov 2007, 20:00-21:00
The First World War led to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and its former provinces came under the control of France and Britain. Albert Kahn's cameras were there to record the establishment of new nations.
Part 8/9: Far East Expeditions to Empires
First Aired on BBC Four, Thu 22 Nov 2007, 20:00-21:00
Between 1914 and 1928, Kahn sent some of his most talented photographers to the Far East. In Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan, they produced a compelling photographic record of economic and cultural life, subsistence industries, and ceremonial practices, and produced a fascinating portrait of the life of a wealthy Maharajah in India during the British Raj.
Part 9/9: The End of a World
First Aired on BBC Four, Thu 29 Nov 2007, 20:00-21:00
The last programme in the series shows the films shot by Kahn's cameraman Lucien Le Saint who joined the French fishing fleets in Newfoundland, the film and colour autochromes shot by Frederic Gadmer who recorded Voodoo religious practices in Benin and the experimental colour films produced by Camille Sauvageot in 1928, depicting the lives of farmers, Gypsies and bullfighters in France.</td></tr></table>



Technical Specs
Eps 1-5:
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Audio Bitrate: 160 KB/s (CBR)
Audio Codec: MP3
Channels: 2 @ Sampling Rate: 48 kHz
Subtitle: None available (don't ask for 'em)
No of Episode: 5
Size per Episode: ~ 746 MB
Length: ~ 00:58:30
Ripped by ashinc
Eps 6-9:
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Resolution: 704 x 400
AR: 1.78:1 (~ 16:9)
Framerate: 25 fps
CQM: Prestige
Quants | Video Bitrate:
o Ep1: I = 20.99, P = 23.48, B = 24.65 | 1629 kbps
o Ep2: I = 21.72, P = 24.44, B = 25.43 | 1642 kbps
o Ep3: I = 21.42, P = 24.50, B = 24.78 | 1639 kbps
o Ep4: I = 19.55, P = 22.51, B = 23.46 | 1647 kbps
Audio Codec: Nero_AAC
Audio bitrate: 128 kbps (cbr) 2 Channels
SR: 48 kHz
Subtitles: Possibly later not now
No of ep: 4
Runtime: ~ 59 mins
File size: 746 MB
Encoded by: ashinc
torrent:
Hilo original de MVgroup: Episodios 1-5 | Episodios 6-9
ep1: http://www.mininova.org/get/749221
ep2: http://www.mininova.org/get/757047
ep3: http://www.mininova.org/get/760048
ep4: http://www.mininova.org/get/763157
ep5: http://www.mininova.org/get/766844
ep6: bajar torrent
ep7:
ep8:
ep9: