New Shots!

Hey all, I've been really busy on tumblr (theworldincolor1.tumblr.com), BUT i have a few new photos for you! They were difficult and I'll tell you why: that late 1800s "faded effect" really bugs me, because it makes the colored pictures looked faded. but enjoy!

Lower East Side

This picture was extraordinarily difficult.

For one, it had these really dark hues that messed up the coloring. Second, for some reason the skin turned a weird orangey-yellow. But enjoy! It's a rare photograph from the Tenement Museum about immigrants in the Lower East Side. I believe these people here are Jewish immigrants.

Anyway, it's a scene of an ice seller selling...you guess it! Ice! Originally I thought it was soap or something because the boy holding it up to his nose looks like he's smelling something. The faces here are particularly interesting -- they really do reflect the time period, and seem geniunely happy -- this picture is not posed. It's a rare glimpse into a typical day (or a typical second) in the Lower East Side. Perhaps one of these boys is the grandfather of someone you know. (I've always wanted to see a "where are they now?" of all these photojournalized faces!) Or a "what are they thinking?" What is the boy staring at the camera thinking at the exact moment the shutter snapped?

The baby's face says it all: it's hot, and all he wants is some scraped ice.

I Still Believe in Fairies

As a girl, I used to believe the tree in front of my house was a fairy-house because it had this tiny little nook with acorns in it.

Although it was probably a squirrel's nest, I liked thinking that, like in that movie "Fairy Tales: A True Story", I would get to meet some magic fairies.

Unfortunately, that movie isn't true. It was based on these two cousins who, between 1917-1920s, took photos with "fairies" and convinced their small community that they had actually met the magic-folk. The photos were analyzed and discovered to be fakes, but it wasn't until the 1980s that the girls confessed that they had indeed used paper fairies and posed with them.

Above are two of the five original photos, with the eldest posing with several types of fairies. I tried to capture the sunlight of a magic fairy forest with overlaying shades of yellow, sort of like sun glint.

Hopefully the colors of the fairies are restored to the colors the girls intended -- it's hard to gage what colors an imaginative girl would want her fairies to be. But this much is true: you don't have to believe in fairies to find the magic in these photographs.

Who Are These People?

It's always fun to imagine who the people in those old-timey photos were, what they did for a living, or even what their names were.

I did my best to color this one, since it was sort of grainy before. I found it on awkwardfamilyphotos.com. It is hilarious to think that someone decided "lining up in height order" was remotely classy. But it was a trend of the era -- this was taken in the early 1900's.

So was dressing baby boys like girls -- the baby on the end is actually a boy!

It is interesting to see the graduation of garments -- first a dress, then knickers, then suits, then pant-suits. (And the blonde one in the center looks like a trouble maker with his amused expression.) My guess is that they are all around 3 years apart, starting at 1 and ending at 12.

What I can synthesize is that they were probably very wealthy, because a) they got their picture taken, b) their clothes, and c) their pale skin. (Tan skin was considered a fashion faux pas! You can thank Coco Chanel for popularizing that bronzed, South-of-France look.) And who are they? We'll never know.

But we will know that they once posed very awkwardly for a family portrait.

Sweet Dreams

Okay. I admit it -- this isn't my best photo.

But it stresses a HUGE importance that we tend to forget about -- exploiting children. I'm probably going to do a portfolio on factory children, tenements and Jacob Riis's "How the Other Half Lives", in a sort of tribute to his work.

It's a shame how we separate ourselves from history -- when we see a black and white photo, we figure it's already happened, gone and done. But colorizing that photo makes it ever the more realistic. For example, "seeing" these boys in black and white and then seeing them as they would on the street is strikingly different. Whereas in color, it seems horrible that the "modern age" would do this, that effect is diminished in black and white -- like it isn't as much of a problem. It's hard to believe that someone walked past and didn't offer to help.

I wonder what they were dreaming about -- the one on the left looks so peaceful.

The Little Duchesses

Above: Tatiana around 1912 (so she was around 15.) The quality isn't great but it's another one I found...she looks very pensive....and strangely aware of her grim future.

I'm not sure why I love this picture so much.

It's very reflective of the Edwardian era -- the clothes, the posture -- and yet it seems so casual, as if we're able to experience the colored world through these girls' eyes. I'm hoping to do more projects on families -- perhaps the Roosevelts.

Anyway, the girls pictured here are cousins, and they're from the ruling family of Russia (pre-communism, around 1909), the Romanovs. The girls on the far left and far right (Tatiana and Olga, the daughters of Nicholas II) are sisters, and the girl in the middle (Irina) is their cousin. It is safe to assume that they're enjoying a lovely day in summer at Livadia, the retreat for tsars -- but I'm not sure.

I had to research their hair color, because I actually have to get this one right! For Tatiana, I wasn't sure what qualifies as "dark auburn", so I did a copperish-reddish-brown. Irina I assumed was brunette, and Olga obviously dirty blonde, with only a hint of red. Remember, these girls were the essence of European royalty and were expected to represent the grace and elegance of the woman -- all four daughters of the tsar were worldwide fashion icons and known for their beauty. (There are two others, Mashka and Anastasia, who are not pictured, and a boy, Alexei.)

In case your wondering, these poor girls were trapped in the heat of the revolution and murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

But their impeccable style will live on.

And Some More Victorians...

This is legitimately the first picture from the Victorian era that anyone has smiled with their mouth open!

These girls are probably enjoying a class picnic, dressed in their finest whites, posing for a quick picture before lunching on the grass. They smile, oblivious of the fact that they will soon be forced to marry someone wealthy.

Oh well. Enjoy it while you can, ladies.