(1) Photographs are complex historical documents and visual artefacts. They never simplistically 'illustrate' past experiences. Colourising pretends it can somehow better 'capture' the past as it really was, but this is a fiction - just as the photo itself is a form of fiction.

(2) This is a problem particularly for images of subjects who had no role in the consent or construct of their photographing. Even in its original state, this Lawrence collection photo is wrapped with classed assumptions about the Irish poor; an anticipated audience etc.

(3) Colourising masks what the photograph actually is, and what it's doing, by adding a pleasing aesthetic layer.