This freedom to manipulate the colour in her images encouraged her to take her experimentation forward on an artistic level too. Her unique colour sense led her to undertake a series of bold sorties which, in the case of a lesser artist, would have been disastrous. She began to use colour in startling combinations and juxtapositions, photographing the auburn-haired actress Joan Maude and the raven-haired actress Viven Leigh against a vibrant red background, producing in the process two of her visually most stunning images. She used colour in ways only a woman would - sometimes sensually, sometimes symbolically, to create a particular atmosphere or apply subtle overtones to a narrative. Her use of colour was adventurous and exciting, and so far ahead of her time that many of her colour images are as fresh and appealing today as they were at the time of their creation. Like all true pioneers Madame Yevonde was never afraid to take risks, and time and again she broke new ground, taking colour photography to new levels of artistic expression.

Other avenues for her to explore sometimes opened up in unexpected ways. She quickly found that the depth of focus available with the automatic repeating camera back was quite shallow, which would normally limit its scope for use. Madame Yevonde's creative imagination enabled her to turn this to her advantage in her personal work. Using exotic fabrics and a variety of reflecting objects to separate the colour, she succeeded in conjuring up exciting backgrounds and foregrounds of coloured noise, against which her subjects stood out, centre stage, in the sharpest focus. This was a device she was to use in much of her personal work.

Madame Yevonde's contribution to the development and popularisation of colour photography cannot be overestimated. She had the foresight, courage and singlemindedness of purpose to take the new medium and raise it to an almost unbelievable level of perfection, despite the obvious reluctance of the public to accept it, and dogged resistance on the part of her fellow professionals. Above all, it was her unique colour sense, her boundless imagination and her tireless experimentation and innovartion that enabled her to raise it to new heights of artistic expression, and resulted in the creation of thousands of colour images of exquisite beauty. Madame Yevonde has left us a legacy of incalculable worth and beauty, for which we should all be profoundly grateful.