The Politics of Nostalgia: Colorization, Spectatorship and the Archive

Colorization describes the digitization and retrospective addition of color to photographic film materials (celluloid nitrate, glass negatives) initially made circulated in a black-and-white format. Revisiting controversial 1980s colorization 24 classic Hollywood studio titles, which incited debate over questions copyright, authorship artistic expression, this essay examines use interpret museum collections for new audiences. The aesthetics have been criticized prioritizing image content history technologies, practices exhibition. An examination They Shall Not Grow Old (Jackson, 2018) finds digital editing coloring techniques First World War footage held Imperial Museum archives that is familiar director’s fiction films. Jackson’s commemorative project, yet “holistic unity” authorial technique operates across fragments archive photographs imbricate nonfiction, signaling vital around ethics ideologies “natural color”, historiography, authenticity spectator experience.