1940s

Radioactive Glass: Can Using Vintage Lenses Ruin Your Photos?

Some lenses produced from the 1940s through the 1970s were treated with radioactive thorium oxide to curb chromatic aberration. But as Andrew Walker explains in this 7.5-minute video, modern digital cameras can actually "see" that radiation as image noise that has the potential ruin your long exposures.

Photos of Photographers in the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, the US government launched the largest photography project it ever sponsored by sending photographers across the country to document America. Of the 170,000 photos captured by photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein, some of them showed other photographers at work with their cameras.

We've gathered together a collection of photos showing photographers during the Great Depression (and the few years following it) between 1935 and 1946.

Fantastic Workshop Helps You Master the Timeless 1940s Glamour Shot

We're not in the habit of sharing full workshop videos during the week. The way we see it, most of you are at work right now (we sure are) and don't have time to watch a one and a half hour workshop at your desk (we sure don't). Problem is, this 1940s Glamour Portraits workshop by Robert Harrington can't wait.

Camera Comics: Awesome Comic Books from the 1940s

Between July 1944 and 1946, the U.S. Camera Publishing Company published a comic book titled "Camera Comics" in an attempt to get kids interested in the growing hobby of photography. Covers showed pilots pointing huge cameras out of planes and baddies getting whacked with cameras.