Vintage photos are making a big comeback these days or maybe not. Maybe it's us getting older and thinking about the good ole days and as the Baby Boomers age and become vintage photo collectors, the numbers are rising. Regardless, old photographs of family members scenes of locations, automobiles, technology from the past strike a reminiscent chord with everyone.
In the beginning, photos were in monochromatic tones of light and dark in dark brown sepia tones, dark gray tones and in black and white. The quality of the images was murky at best. As photography evolved in cameras, film and processing, the images had more definition and photography was becoming an art form.
Black and white photography flourished for many years because even 50 years ago, color film, processing and printing was a lot more expensive than black and white. Basically, color reproduction in books and magazines did not really progress until the early 1980s. During that era we've seen brilliant black and white photography from Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, and Alfred Eisenstaedt just to name a few artists who mastered composition and light with contrasting shadows to achieve their final product.
Today in the world of digital photography, black and white can be achieved through the camera but probably the best method is through a digital rendering through a photography computer application such as Photoshop. But even with new technology nothing can replace old New York City photos or other locations that are long gone, the victims of progress.
It is still a pleasure to take a look at the past through the original lenses and technology of that time. Vintage photos are here to stay.
Bill White Photos (http://www.billwhitephotos.printroom.com/) is a site has numerous memorable, mostly pre-World War II, old New York City photos, New England photos and Minnesota photos, made by Hubert W White, also made many old vintage train photos.
Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer.
