French artist Sébastien de Oliveira is best known for his meticulous colorization of historical black and white photographs, a process that blends archival research with a distinctly artistic sensibility.
Drawing on his background as a painter and photographer, de Oliveira approaches each image with careful attention to period-accurate details, studying clothing, architecture, materials, and environmental cues to ensure that every color choice feels grounded in its historical context. His goal is not strict realism, but emotional authenticity, using color as a way to reconnect modern viewers with moments that might otherwise feel distant or abstract.
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#1
Computer lesson in 1972.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#2
Policeman Leclerc, Porte Saint Denis, Paris, 1925.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#3
A British sailor on board the HMS ALCANTARA uses a portable sewing machine to repair a signal flag during a voyage to Sierra Leone.
Photographed by Cecil Beaton in March 1942.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#4
Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis are trying a Messerschmitt KR 200 in Paris, photographed in 1955.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#5
A chestnut vendor, Baltimore, Md.
Photographed in 1905.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#6
Two clowns, Dario and Bario, photographed in 1945 by Robert Doisneau.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#7
Marlene Dietrich and her chauffeur, Briggs, on a lunch break from filming Shanghai Express in 1931.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#8
Actress Diana Dors, in 1953.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#9
Vivien Leigh photographed by Laszlo Willinger in 1940.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#10
Ile Saint-Louis, Paris, 1958, by Philippe Bataillon.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#11
Millworker’s house six miles north of Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina.
Photographed in July 1939 by Dorothea Lange.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#12
Frank Horvat, Paris, pour Jardin des Modes, à ‘Le Chien Qui Fume’, 1957.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#13
After The Shower, The Newspaper Seller Sweeps Up Around Her Kiosk.
Photographed in Paris on June 9Th 1955.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#14
Circulation near Porte Saint Martin, Paris, in 1951.
I live nearly 200m from there.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#15
The Brox Sisters, singers.
Lorayne, Bobbe, and Patricia Brox, 1924.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#16
Sarasota, Florida, trailer park. Students are coming from school in the afternoon.
Photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in January 1941.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#17
Farmer’s truck at state rice mill, Abbeville, Louisiana.
Photographed by Russell Lee in September 1938.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#18
Image source: sebcolorisation
#19
Mount Auburn Street in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Photographed in the summer of 1977.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#20
Filling station, Reedsville, Preston County, West Virginia. Photographed by Walker Evans in June 1935.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#21
Medford, Massachusetts, 1977.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#22
Shopping and visiting on the main street of Pittsboro, North Carolina, Saturday afternoon, photographed by Dorothea Lange in July 1939.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#23
The smallest house in Paris.
With a facade less than 1,5 meters wide, the house is situated at 39 rue du Château d’eau in the 10th arrondissement. 200 meters from my home!
Photographed in 1926.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#24
Young workers at the Penomah Mills Inc, Taftville, Connecticut.
Photographed by Jack Delano in November 1940.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#25
Miami Beach, Florida, 1962.
Photographed by Elliott Erwitt.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#26
Gordonton, North Carolina. Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon.Photographed by Dorothea Lange. July 1939.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#27
Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill,
30 December 1941, by Yousuf Karsh.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#28
American troops participating in the Victory parade on the Champs Elysées in Paris for Bastille day 14th July 1919.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#29
Melvin Cash, a truck driver, is putting water in his radiator along U.S. Highway 29 in North Carolina en route to Charlotte.
Photographed by John Vachon in March 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#30
Japanese Painter Foujita and his muse Youki at Deauville, France. Photographed in 1925.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#31
Train Station Saint Lazare, Paris 1920.
Published in my book « Paris jamais vu! »
Image source: sebcolorisation
#32
Women workers during lunch hour, Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards, Baltimore, Maryland. Photographed by Arthur Siegel in May 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#33
Street view in San Augustine, Texas, 1943. Photographed by John Vachon.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#34
November 1940. « Restaurant and beer hall in Summit City, California, boom town near Shasta Dam. » Photographed by Russell Lee.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#35
Showroom of the Pierson Company owned by Al Pierson.
November 1942, Lititz, Pennsylvania.
Photographed by Marjory Collins.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#36
Merry Christmas!
Mrs Roosvelt on a Christmas shopping tour.
Washington, D.C. December 1934.
Harris & Ewing Collection.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#37
Lititz, Pennsylvania, small town in wartime. Photographed by Marjory Collins in November 1942.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#38
Bob Daugherty, a driver for the Associated Transport Company, was on U.S. Highway Route 29 near Culpeper, Virginia. Photographed by John Vachon in March 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#39
Kimo Theatre on Route 66, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Photographed by John Collier in February 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#40
Illuminated tires were developed by GoodYear in 1961.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#41
Conductor G.Reynolds, checking his waybills in a caboose of the Atchison, Topeka &Santa Fe Railroad between Argentine and Emporia, Kansas.
Photographed by Jack Delano in March 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#42
August 1939. Medford, Oregon. Farm boy on the main drugstore corner in town, by Dorothea Lange.
From my book. « Back to America »
Image source: sebcolorisation
#43
Newsboys in Jackson, Ohio. Photographed by Theodor Jung on April 12th, 1936.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#44
In the court of the Hotel Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, Florida. Photographed in 1905.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#45
Gas station on Route 1 near Saugus, Massachusetts.
Photographed in September 1977.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#46
General store in Pony, Montana, photographed by Arthur Rothstein in June 1939.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#47
Man sleeping on the subway, 1939.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#48
Daughter of John Yeuser of Mauch Chunk, a coal mining town in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
Photographed by Jack Delano in August 1940.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#49
James Dean by Maurice Terrell, 1954.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#50
Gas Station, Chicago, Illinois.
Photographed by John Vachon in July 1941.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#51
Sidewalk scene in Selma, Alabama.
Photographed in December 1935 by Walker Evans.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#52
Service station run by a former resident of Oklahoma in Questa, New Mexico.
Photographed by Russell Lee in September 1939.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#53
Cobb&Company stage, West Coast Road to Christchurch, New Zealand, 1900.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#54
The goat carriages, Coney Island. New York, 1904.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#55
Herald Square, 34th Street, and Broadway, New York.Photographed by Berenice Abbott in July 1936.
This colorisation is special for me, I can say it is the most difficult I ever had to do, 500 people to dress! yes I counted them because my daughter asked me how many they were! I did it three years ago for my first book, Back To America.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#56
Charles Farrar on a Harley Davidson, Washington D.C. Photographed by Robert H.McNeill in 1949.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#57
Street scene in the downtown business section.
Woodward Avenue at Farnsworth Street as seen from the Maccabees Building.
Detroit, Michigan, photographed by Arthur Siegel in July 1942.
Image source: sebcolorisation
#58
Filling station on a highway out of town, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Photographed by John Vachon in March 1943.
Image source: sebcolorisation
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