The first permanent color photograph was taken in 1861 by British photographer Thomas Sutton, based on a three-color method proposed by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. The subject of the photograph was a tartan ribbon. To create the image, Sutton took three separate black-and-white photos of the ribbon through red, green, and blue filters. When the three resulting transparent slides were projected simultaneously through the same filters onto a screen, they combined to form a full-color image. This "additive color" process laid the foundation for virtually all modern color photography and digital sensor technology used in 2026. While the original image was somewhat faint due to the film's poor sensitivity to red light at the time, it proved that the human eye's perception of color could be successfully replicated through a mechanical and chemical process.