[VIEWED: August 5, 2010] America in Color 1939-1943
The Denver Post recently published 70 color photographs from the Depression. You can see them all here. The photographs are part of the Library of Congress’ collection of photos. The Library of Congress’ collection houses 1,600 color and over 160,000 black and white photos from this period in American history. It is a bit more for scholars, as you can’t just browse the pictures like in the Denver Post site, but for completeness, you really must check out the LOC prints. They’re available here.
But back to the Denver Post. The Post’s collection of 70s prints come from the Library of Congress’ 2006 Exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color. These Post’s pictures are very large and very clear (they are reproduced from slides). And they are all downloadable.
They include photos from New Mexico, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, California, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Washington D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan.
And, they show the amazingly diverse makeup of the country. From a peach farmer to a railway worker. From kids fishing, to kids playing in the snow. From women at a fair, to women welding. From men on horseback to men in front of bomber. Not to mention, the creation of the Shasta Dam! (It’s amazing — #28)
The thing that amazes me most about these pictures is that although some things have changed quite dramatically in sixty years, other things haven’t. Kids still fish, stores still sell fruits and veggies, and people still love pictures of scenery and interesting faces.
You can obviously tell that these pictures are old. Even the ones without people just look old, why is that?–see #2 in particular for one that looks old even though nothing in the picture is dated. Or picture #11: the women’s faces simply look like the were photographed 60 years ago. Or this one, which I’m including. There’s nothing particularly dated about the picture, and yet you can tell this didn’t just happen in 2010.
SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-Repeater + 3 Songs (1990).
This was Fugazi’s debut album and my first exposure to them. They’d put out some singles before this but I missed them. Listening to it now, it sounds great, but not revolutionary. And yet, I remember back then, this was a pretty mind-blowing album. It’s full of heavy chunky guitars and yet it is underscored by a punk vibe (that comes from the source: Minor Threat).
SOUNDTRACK: A CAMP-Colonia (2009).
This is the second album from the side project of The Cardigan’s Nina Persson. This disc was created with her husband Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think. Their first album had a country flair to it, but this one eschews that entirely for a pop feel that is entirely different from The Cardigans’ two main styles: the “cheesy” happy pop of “Lovefool” and the bitter guitar pop of their later discs.
SOUNDTRACK: DANKO JONES-Never Too Loud (2008).
Danko Jones is a hard and fast rock band, with a one track mind and a straightforward sound. They deal in excessive cliches (album titles include: Sleep is the Enemy, We Sweat Blood, Never Too Loud, etc) and play mostly short songs. And despite all that apparent negativity, I enjoy them beyond reason.
I Just Read About That... 