10 ms·
Depression-era color photos
- nostrademons 16y agoIt's funny how the documentary technology affects how we view the past. These photos seem much more cheerful than the black & white images that we usually associate with the Depression and WW2. If it weren't for the car & clothing styles, they could be taken today. I wonder if our grandchildren will view our still, color photos the same way. Life was so drab and depressing before motion & 3D!
- Qz 16y agoMy (admittedly nonsensical) reaction to the first photo: Wait -- you mean they had sunlight during the depression?!
- frossie 16y agoAre they more cheerful for being in colour? The effect on me is to deepen my empathy, so they leave me a bit sadder, actually. I also look at #9 and thank my stars that I am culturally allowed to do manual work in jeans and boots.
- sophacles 16y agoThe dirt is definately more noticable -- I am just depressed at how dirty things are in those pictures. Of course, it isn't really any cleaner in rural/industrial settings today...
- ShabbyDoo 16y agoIt did not appear that the man work worked in the carbon plant had the benefit of a respirator -- at least the dirt patterns on his face didn't show any signs of a nose/mouth covering. Imagine how many government regulations this same factory would be in violation of today.
- peterwwillis 16y agoA lot of those same workers today don't use nose/mouth coverings (save for a bandanna). The rural poor continue to sacrifice for the urban well-off.
- biggitybones 16y agoI agree - although I view it a bit different. I always feel a disconnect with black and white photos, as if it's something that happened centuries ago or not at all. These photos somehow make it feel more "real".
- cstuder 16y agoSame happened to me when german TV once showed a couple of the few WW2 video recordings in color.
- zbyszek 16y agoOh dear. There are black-and-white photos of my childhood. I didn't think I was that old -- until now!
- mitjak 16y agoMy dad always took black and white photos, even through the 90s. So I suppose you're not.
- ElbertF 16y agoI can't wait for these "motion pictures" you speak of, I wish it was the future already!
- noelchurchill 16y agoThose are some amazing photos. Such a treat to have them in color.
- ambiate 16y agoSome of those images are almost haunting. The family living in the dugout home... those meals look just like the ones my great grandmother prepared everyday. One mason jar of green beans, a jar of milk (she always transferred store bought milk into jars), home made biscuits (key ingredient was lard :|), and a portion of rice. She was a nurse during the time of the depression. It almost gives a glimpse of where she got some of her habits. When you're the poor all you know to do is work and grow your own food... she had an excellent garden! She lived like this until she died at 93 in '98. (She was filthy rich from investing during the time of the depression and cashing out... no one even grasped how much money this woman had) On a side note, the locomotives reminded me of the visual imagery that crossed my mind while reading Atlas Shrugged.
- roel_v 16y ago"On a side note, the locomotives reminded me of the visual imagery that crossed my mind while reading Atlas Shrugged." Exactly what I thought when I saw them. These images are great and would do great as a coffee table book to flip through while reading Atlas Shrugged.
- lanstein 16y agoWow. I've actually been written up in the newspaper in picture 6. That's kind of a trip.
- og1 16y agoPhoto number 6 is Twitter circa 1940.
- mkeblx 16y agoYou beat me to it, except I think it's more HuffPo or Flipboard. Maybe looking at old photos can be used to find start-up ideas.
- hammerdr 16y ago"Flying Santa Behind Schedule" -- oof. Even Santa was hit by the depression! I wonder if it was social engineering for kids to expect late presents (or none)?
- cgs1019 16y agoTwitter circa 1935: http://gizmodo.com/5254222/olde-timey-notificator-machine-twitters-like-its-1935 http://gizmodo.com/5254222/olde-timey-notificator-machine-tw...
- edw519 16y agoNot very many smiles. Maybe this was before the convention of, "Say cheese!" Or more likely, I suspect, because life was hard and people had little. Makes one appreciate how good we have it now. </adjusts air conditioning> </shifts butt in Aeron> </grabs Red Bull>
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- d2viant 16y agoWe view it as hard compared to what we have now. However, not having that comparison -- did people back then actually think life was hard? Or was it just normal?
- rdtsc 16y agoI guess some cultures and countries regard photographs as just documentary evidence of what the subject looks like. Or what the situation is like. If everyone is dancing and singing, then there would probably be lots of laughing people in the shot. But is accidental, not because the photographer is trying to tease out a smile by saying something silly like "cheese". And then, if it is just a portrait, then it makes sense to have a neutral expression... I encountered this clash of cultures when I came to America from Eastern Europe. Everyone looking at my family photos immediatly assumed everyone was very unhappy because the subjects don't smile. I usually got the "Oh so sad, everyone was so unhappy, it was probably because of communism...?". Nevermind that it is a picture of a large family picnic, with plenty of food, kabobs grilling in the background -- basically all the indications that everyone was having a good time (and I know they were because I was there as well). Yet, I always get the "unhappy people" sympathy comment. It always baffles me...
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- dugmartin 16y agoMy dad has a picture of him sitting in his one-room school house around 1942 that looks almost exactly like the one in this post. He has his shoes on in the picture which I guess was a rarity - the teacher used to make him take them off at the door because of all the cow crap he stepped in milking the cow before school.
- hubb 16y agohttp://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-125171/cache/color045.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.sJPG?1280949536 http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-1251... is that snow in new mexico?! is that normal there?
- astine 16y agoYes and Yes. There are actually some pretty decent ski resorts in the mountains there. (Though they don't compare with Colorado.) I'll bet you didn't know that it also snows at the Grand Canyon. I've seen it.
- jonknee 16y agoQuite. The lowest point in the state is something like 2,500 feet and average is around 5,500. Been in snow there myself and I've only been twice. It's gorgeous. http://www.google.com/images?q=new%20mexico%20snow http://www.google.com/images?q=new%20mexico%20snow
- api 16y agoMakes me wonder how today will be remembered... "An unemployed hipster tweeting from his iPhone outside a shuttered financial firm. New York, New York, April 2010. Reproduction from JPEG. Photo by Jack Smith. Holographic Storage Division, Library of Congress."
- daleharvey 16y agoThe source of the photos, library of congress set on flickr is amazing http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/
- dangoldin 16y agoThis reminded me of early 20th century photographs of Russia at the Smithsonian: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ They were constructed due to the photographer foresight of using different lens filters.
- simoncoggins 16y agoReminds me of these images of Russia made with Digichromatography: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/
- delano 16y agoThis article is just a small subset of the photos available. The Library of Congress has many more on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157603671370361/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/721576...
- joezydeco 16y agoOne thing that's always piqued my curiosity is the old handwriting seen in these photos. Look at #6 and #30. You see a lot of this style of handwriting pre-WWII, then it disappears. What changed?
- hernan7 16y agoI suspect they stopped teaching calligraphy drills in elementary school.
- Semiapies 16y agoCursive became bigger. If you look into the various "italic" schools of handwriting/calligraphy, you can still find courses and books on writing that way, though. I've got that on my things-to-do after this summer...
- jlm382 16y agoIf it weren't for the "hard-times", our perceived happiness levels are likely to be pretty similar. The people from 1940 probably looked at the black-and-white photos of the Civil War era, and thought how hard it must have been to live in a world without cars and planes. For all we know, the next generation will think back on us 2010-folk and think "could you believe it took 5 hours to cross the country by plane?!"
- run4yourlives 16y ago70 slides, and not a single overweight person to be seen. Just an observation.
- stonemetal 16y agoNot sure which slides you were looking at but 3(old guy on the left is arguably larger than he should be), 12(portly gent on the right), and 66(a fine double chin if ever I saw one) have overweight people in them. Also it was the great depression not exactly known as a time of plenty.
- tibbon 16y agoYet we're in an economic downturn, which is supposed to be a time of lacking as well and people are fatter than ever.
- brianobush 16y agosnacks and heavily processed foods are cheaper than healthy fresh vegetables and fruits. the easy path...
- duck 16y agoI think relating this so called downturn to the Depression is impossible for any of us (and media) to do. From the stories I heard from my grandparents and others, I'm not sure if the generation today would do so well in a true great depression.
- run4yourlives 16y ago3 is an illusion, but your other two examples are certainly heavy set people. I would call neither "overweight" though.
- joshfinnie 16y agoI think the point is that it is almost impossible to take a picture today like #6 without getting one overweight individual in it. Definitely a different world back then.
- marstall 16y agoera check: photos taken 1939-45, which was WWII. Depression ended in the late '30s/early '40s.
- cunard-n 16y agoThank you. I love these.
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- misterbwong 16y agowow. i clicked the link expecting to see how much has changed, but after viewing i've realized how little has changed. #6 (save for the lady walking in the back) looks like it could have been shot yesterday somewhere in NY.
- tjmc 16y agoIs that Jason Calacanis in picture 10?
- ugh 16y agoContrast, compare: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/at_work.html http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/at_work.html Not exactly the same (only work themed photos, international) but offers some additional perspective.
- invisible 16y agoIt's kind of strange to see these - but it is especially striking as I share the surname "Caudill" with the #1 and #17. I never thought of it as very common, so perhaps I'm related somehow. Some very neat photos in there though, and interesting to see the world/country in a different phase.
- TotlolRon 16y agoNot Depression-era. 1939-1943. WWII.
- tocomment 16y agoDid you notice the 1 cent oranges? Inflation is amazing.
- kree10 16y agoGreat pictures, but I have a technical gripe: while waiting (and waiting) for these to load, I took a look at the HTTP headers of one image: http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-125171/cache/color021.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.sJPG?1281011079 http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-1251... Given that URL I thought I'd see some flickr-style years-in-the-future Expires and Cache-control headers. The article is dated July 26, but 1281011079 (assuming this is an 'epoch time') is today, August 5. It's almost like they went out of their way to defeat caches by tacking on that query string.