Artist creates incredible colourised photos of London through the years

The photos provide a fascinating insight into the history of the capital

Digital artist Marina Amaral has colourised a range of historic photos of London taken throughout the years (Marina Amaral / Evening Standard archives)

The medium of photography has provided the world with a phenomenal insight into the past.

However, looking at black and white photos can only stretch the imagination so far.

Brazilian artist Marina Amaral has used her talents to add a burst of colour to a range of historic photos from the archives of the Evening Standard that were taken in London throughout the years.

Amaral hopes that when a viewer looks at her impressive work, they feel more connected to the past and more empathetic towards the people who came before us.

Her method for adding colour to photos is based on “artistic guess and historical research,” she explained to The Independent.

“Once the colours are applied, we feel like we’re travelling back in time, and we are able to create a deeper and more intimate relationship with those historical events and historical figures,” she said.

“Suddenly they cease to be fictional characters present only in books and they become real, flesh-and-blood human beings.”

Anyone who knows London well will recognise the hustle and bustle of a busy street occupied by the capital’s famous red buses.

However, taking a look at what previous iterations of the red buses would have looked like in colour decades ago is incredibly fascinating.

Amaral has also colourised photos of famous figures, such as the Beatles and Muhammad Ali, making them appear as though they were only photographed yesterday.

In addition to her beautiful work colourising historic photos of London, Amaral is also releasing a book later this year called The Colour of Time, with reworked photos spanning from 1850 to 1960.

The artist collaborated with leading British historian Dan Jones to produce 200 digitally coloured images depicting scenes from around the world.

"Marina's great talent lies in her rare combination of an artist's sensibility with a historian's diligence," Jones told The Independent.

"She's a star and a joy to collaborate with."

Amaral’s work with Photoshop received a lot of attention recently when a colourised image of a 14-year-old prisoner of Auschwitz, Czesława Kwoka, began circulating the internet.