Monday, January 24, 2011

Color Photo Prints from the '30s

I've always loved looking at vintage color images. Something about the depth of color, or saturation, richness. The color tones were basically a product of whatever the state of the technology offered at the time. The kinds of photo emulsions, separations employed. The state of the art, as well, with respect to print reproduction techniques. Post-photo print hand colorization is sometimes evident, as well.

Bernarr Macfadden was a proponent of 'physical culture' in the '20s and '30s. Physical culture referring to a combination of body building, nutrition, and other health issues. His Eight Volume work, The Encyclopedia of Health was outstanding in his time. Here are a few photos from Volume Five: 'Personality', published in the 1930s.

(Click on photo to enlarge. Click again for closer detail, or to read text beneath the image)




1 comment:

  1. Great photos! My mother as a young woman was an excellent negative retoucher and hand colorist in "Little Studio" in downtown Atlanta. It was "The" photographic studio in the Southeast United States back in the 1920s and 30s.

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