Rare and Stunning Color Photographs Capture Daily Life in Poland in the 1930s

Hans Hildenbrand (1870–1957) was one of the early color photographers from Germany. In 1911 he founded the color photographic society, which mainly spread postcards and stereoscopic images and become known for taking color photographs during World War I. That time he was one of 19 officially commissioned war photographers on the German side, and the only one among them to make color photographs of the war zones in Alsace, Champagne and the Vosges.

After war in 1932 become photographer for the American magazine National Geographic, for which he visited Poland at the turn of the 1920s and ’30s where he captured the colorful life of its people. Below are some of his stunning photographs.

(Image by © Hans Hildenbrand/National Geographic Society/Corbis)