September 13, 2008
Like a time machine
December 1942. Chicago & North Western roundhouse, Chicago. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. Click on image for larger version.
That's what Kodachrome is, a window into the past, a two-dimensional time machine, reminding us that the history was not a black-and-white world.
Don't get me wrong; I love black-and-white photography, the way it emphasizes shape and texture through light and shadow, but it also adds an abstract, distancing quality to the images.
Photos like these, from Shorpy's site, invite close inspection, as the viewer marvels over the details.
May 1942. Patriotic display at the Beecher Street School in Southington, Conn. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Fenno Jacobs. Click on image for larger version.
Look at the faces of the children above. They're all in their 70s now, grandparents, great-grandparents, but in this photo they look like today's kids -- although considerably better dressed and behaved than their modern counterparts.
August 1942. "Mrs. Eloise J. Ellis has been appointed by civil service to be senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. She buoys up feminine morale in her department by arranging suitable living conditions for out-of-state employees and by helping them with their personal problems." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem for the Office of War Information. (Click on image for larger version.)
Or how about the stunningly attractive Mrs. Ellis, who today would surely be in her late 80s? You've got to admit that she's got a timeless appeal, with a hint of a Mona Lisa smile dancing around the corners of her mouth.
It's a reminder of our mortality -- and the arrogance and willful blindness of our relative youth -- that we see our aged neighbors making their way slowly through the supermarket, driving cautiously down the street, and forget that they were young and vibrant, some of them supermodel-gorgeous in a pre-supermodel time.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 13, 2008 05:15 PM
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