Breathing colour into historical photographs

Hollem, Howard R.,, photographer. Formerly a sculptress and designer of tiles, Dorothy Cole converted her basement into a workshop to tin plate needles for valves for blood transfusion bottles prepared by Baxter Laboratories, Glenview, Ill. She turns in her profits to war bonds to provide a college education for her young nephew 1942 Oct.

I am fascinated by colourised historical photographs and enjoyed the Vox video titled “How obsessive artists colorize old photos“:

When I look at these old historical photographs that have been colourised digitally, it really brings these images to life. It shortens the distance in time between our time and the subjects’ times.

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC)

Black and white is certainly a powerful format, both for historical photos and for contemporary work. At the same time, there is something incredible about the work historical colourists do.

This work is remarkable. The video is well worth watching too.

If you are interested in seeing more of this work, here are the artists who Vox highlighted in their video show notes:

By Paul

Enthusiast, writer, Happiness Engineer at Automattic. I take photos too. Passionate about my wife, Gina and #proudDad.

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