Madame
Yevonde continued working almost exclusively in colour
right through to the end of the decade, despite the
looming threat of war, resonances of which crept increasingly
into her work. In spite of the gathering storm clouds,
and the loss of her husband from cancer in 1939, her
output continued unabated until the outbreak of war
finally brought about the closure of the VIVEX manufacturing
and processing plant on which she was totally dependent
for all her colour needs. For Madame Yevonde, this was
a bitter blow, bringing to an abrupt end a period of
the most intensely dedicated and uniquely creative pioneering
work in the whole history of colour photography. It
was, quite simply, the end of an era.
With
the loss of the VIVEX process in which she had invested
so much, Madame Yevonde was forced to revert to the
black-and-white photography on which she had all but
turned her back in the previous decade. Despite the
nightly air raids, she continued working in London until
she was bombed out of her London flat and took refuge
in a small cottage in the country just to the south
of London. Here she set up a small studio for the weekends,
and travelled up to the Berkeley Square studio every
day, determined not to be beaten.
At
the end of the war, she moved back into London again
and continued to work at the Berkeley Square studio,
with all its memories of happier times. VIVEX, however,
was dead and buried, and although other colour processes
became available in time, Madame Yevonde very rarely
used them, deeming them all far too crude in comparison
with VIVEX.
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