a special filter and particular viewing circumstances, the autochrome nonetheless brought back to early twentieth-century photography some of the mystery and excitement created by the daguerreotype. Laudatory remarks from the time convey the sense that the autochrome would develop into the colour photography everyone had been waiting for Moreover, in a period in which art photographers sought new ways to legitimize their work, the autochrome appeared as an appealing creative process. Secessionists took it up without hesitation.