Stop and try one

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There’s something very special about this photo, and it is not so much the ladies or the ice cream van or the deliciousness of it all. It’s the colour. This picture was taken in colour in 1928 by the American photographer Clifton R. Adams. So what you see is not a later colouring, but these are the actual shades of that time. Pretty vivid, isn’t it?

Kelly’s of Cornwall ice cream

The photograph was taken near St Austell in Cornwall. Adams was sent there by National Geographic to photograph life in the countryside. He used a process called Autochrome Lumière to adjust the colours. Not exactly a simple process. The plates were covered with microscopic grains of potato starch coloured red, green and blue-violet at about four million grains per square inch. The light passed through these filters when the picture was taken and the gaps were filled with lamp black.

But we get carried away because this is not a website for photographers. Anyone who can tell us more about Kelly’s ice cream van? Oh, just like E.H. Stokes’ company that was featured here recently with that magnificent fire truck, Kelly’s of Cornwall ice cream still exists!

Words Jeroen Booij. Picture Clifton R. Adams for National Geographic magazine.

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