Malcom Browne's 1963 image of the self-immolating monk.

When did you first get the idea to colorize famous historic photographs, and what was your intention in doing so?
I was listening to Rage Against The Machine and I saw the album art of the burning monk [a close-up of Malcolm Browne's iconic 1968 image]. I was impressed by the photo but I thought it would be more impressive if the fire was the color of fire, because it looks really dull in black and white. I’m pretty decent with Photoshop and by accident I found that Color Mode did magic to the photo and colorized the fire. It looked all right, so I tried painting the rest of the photo.

What do you want people to gain from looking at a colorized version of an iconic photo?
A new perspective on the historical context. I’m pretty sure it’s a fact that most people of my generation find black and white photos dull. I think a color photo makes you feel that history is much closer. I never want to replace or improve the photographs, as some papers, blogs and commenters have written. It’s very frustrating seeing people making up their own story as if it’s exactly how I wanted it. Of course some people don’t like the colorized version and I respect that. Even I think some of the photos I colorized look aesthetically better in black and white.

How do you choose colors for these images? Do you do any historical research, or do you simply make aesthetic choices? Do you try to replicate the look of early color films?
I try to research as best as I can, but I’m only human and I make mistakes. For instance I now know that the soldiers’ trousers in [Timothy O'Sullivan's] A Harvest of Death