Color photos from the Great Depression

[KentState]

Saw this article and thought that the pictures were pretty amazing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ress-colour-photographs-Great-Depression.html

 

[MetalMat]

Cool

 

[thecrecarc]

Old color photos have an almost eerie quality to them.

 

[edro]

Whoa, that last photo is creepy.
Those are some rough looking people.

 

[LTC8K6]

Old color photos have an almost eerie quality to them.

That rich color and "pop" to those images is probably because of Kodachrome.

You just don't get that with anything else. Good Kodachromes have a look all their own.

 

[Spoooon]

Whoa, that last photo is creepy.
Those are some rough looking people.

Not creepy to me, just that one girl got an unfortunate combination of genes.

 

[Born2bwire]

I've seen these before but I can't remember where. Probably at shorpy. Anyway, yeah the kodachrome is absolutely fantastic.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Great link, thanks!

 

[pcgeek11]

Very nice pictures but the depression was essentially over in 1939. Not that it matters much. Times were still tough even then.

 

[thecrecarc]

That rich color and "pop" to those images is probably because of Kodachrome.

You just don't get that with anything else. Good Kodachromes have a look all their own.

IMO, there's definitely more to it than just the film. For example, those really old 1910ish Russian color photographs by Prokudin-Gorskii, they give off the same creepy vibes.

 

[mmntech]

IMO, there's definitely more to it than just the film. For example, those really old 1910ish Russian color photographs by Prokudin-Gorskii, they give off the same creepy vibes.

Creepy? No. A lot of photographers like the artistic effect you can get with monochrome. However, I think these old colour photos add a deeper sense of realism, especially to modern audiences. It's like Oz's technocolor wonder world versus the bland sepia of Kansas.

And yeah, that one girl definitely inherited her dad's looks. I'd laugh if she turned out to be a famous person though. Who knows. ^_^

 

[BillGates]

Grandpa Guido

 

[BoomerD]

I've seen these before but I can't remember where. Probably at shorpy. Anyway, yeah the kodachrome is absolutely fantastic.

I think those have been posted here before...but I'm too lazy to go find the thread and call it a repost...

 

[techie81]

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Sent this to my friends.

 

[lupi]

weird seeing that title from a UK source, and looks like about every picture is actually during the war period.

 

[SirStev0]

these are all over facebook. not really doing much for me.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think those have been posted here before...but I'm too lazy to go find the thread and call it a repost...

Yes, they were all over the place for the announcement of the end of Kodachrome processing, I believe.

 

[SirStev0]

i feel with out colour they seemed much more "great depressiony"

 

[tcsenter]

Those photos are hardly a "bleak" portrayal of the Great Depression. All of them look like the lucky ones who weren't touched too badly by the depression; eating plate fulls of food, having a job, having a home, buying produce at market, storefronts that are still open, etc. I've seen plenty more "bleak" Depression-era photos than those.

 

[JS80]

I see Napolean Dynomite in the last photo

 

[ShawnD1]

What a difference the color makes. It actually looks a lot like today. Welding equipment looks the same, old guy on a horse looks like modern old guys on horses, shiny new airplanes look nice, dirt poor family has 5 kids for no apparent reason.

 

[brainhulk]

so these are from 2008?

 

[tcsenter]

Whoa, that last photo is creepy.
Those are some rough looking people.

Those people could crush you with their bare hands (and me, I'm not going to pretend that I've had a physically arduous life).

 

[paperfist]

I thought everyone smoked a ton back then? Yet I don't see one picture of that.

And lol at the fruit, $00.01 for an orange. Today that same orange will cost you and arm and a leg.

 

[BoomerD]

I thought everyone smoked a ton back then? Yet I don't see one picture of that.

And lol at the fruit, $00.01 for an orange. Today that same orange will cost you and arm and a leg.

Your body parts must be cheap...Oranges were $0.39/lb at one grocery store a couple of nights ago, and $0.69 at another.