The instamatic camera was invented in 1963 and the mass marketing of colour film followed shortly after. Until then, almost 1 photographs had been in black and white. By the early 1970s, sales of colour film had overtaken those for black and white and today colour accounts 2 all but a tiny percentage of the 96 million films sold in Britain every year. But those early colour photographs are already showing signs of age. Millions of snapshots 3 since 1963 are changing colour because of their chemical make up. These chemicals change over time. The deterioration of photographs is nothing new, of course. We tend 4 view the late nineteenth century in delicate shades of brown thanks to the chemicals used at the time. But there is a fair chance that future generations will 5 back at the late twentieth century as the era of purple grass and pink skies. Because, although the fading is only gradual, the different colours change 6 different rates. Keeping photographs in a dark drawer, or even in the fridge, will certainly 7 them last longer, but none of them will keep forever. Our grandparents’ old-fashioned black and white photographs from earlier in the twentieth century will 8 the test of time better, in fact