America in Color 1939-1940

[A.J. Dickson]

Found some fabulous photos of Americana circa 1940, here on the Denver Post site. Enjoy.


http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.html

[Eric Woodbury]

They're beautiful. Very nice.

[darr]

Thanks for sharing!

[tgtaylor]

Ditto!

Thomas

[BetterSense]

It seems interesting how many of them seem to be shot in direct sunlight, but don't have out-of-control contrast like I would expect from transparency film shot in direct sunlight. I wonder if they are faded slightly.

[Scott --]

It's surreal to see these familiar themes in color. Makes them seem more immediate somehow. Very cool.

[Bill_1856]

Thanks for posting this.
I love seeing these old images BUT -- this rather hokey, usually posed kind of stuff was presented to "us" in the photo magazines of the 40s and 50s as being "fine" photography. There was no (or at least limited) exposure to the work of Weston, Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Lange, Gene Smith, Hine, etc.
I now realized that I had wasted my "mis-spent photographic youth" trying to emulate this genre of pseudo-documentary kitsch(sp?). It took me another 20 years to go beyond this. It's really too bad -- growing up in a small rural town, as a kid I had access to a world which has now disappeared.

[goamules]

Thanks for posting this.
I love seeing these old images BUT -- this rather hokey, usually posed kind of stuff was presented to "us" in the photo magazines of the 40s and 50s as being "fine" photography. There was no (or at least limited) exposure to the work of Weston, Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Lange, Gene Smith, Hine, etc.
I now realized that I had wasted my "mis-spent photographic youth" trying to emulate this genre of pseudo-documentary kitsch(sp?). It took me another 20 years to go beyond this. It's really too bad -- growing up in a small rural town, as a kid I had access to a world which has now disappeared.

On the art vs documentary spectrum I agree they are mostly on the documentary side, but that's what I like about them. Look at pic 44 and many others...just a quick capture of what the American world was like in 1940. I don't see too many that are pseudo-doc, they look to me like the photographer called a bunch of people over and made a shot. The clothes, expressions, buildings, cars, foods, all are authentic Americana. I think you are saying the same thing - it's amazing what has changed.

Sometimes I'd rather look at a picture of people at a country BBQ than an artfully lighted bell pepper.

[Brian C. Miller]

It seems interesting how many of them seem to be shot in direct sunlight, but don't have out-of-control contrast like I would expect from transparency film shot in direct sunlight. I wonder if they are faded slightly.

But didn't Kodachrome have an 8-stop range? (I never shot the stuff myself, as I only use 35mm for HIE)

[Brian Ellis]

These were nice and color certainly captures the literal look of the times better than b&w. But I thought the b&w photographs by the FSA photographers were more effective at conveying what the First Great Depression (can't just call it the "Great Depression" any more since we're now in a second one) must have felt like.

"Low art is just telling things, as, there is the night. High art gives the feel of the night. The latter is nearer reality although the former is a copy." Robert Henri