history

This Online Quiz Shows How Color Can Trick You when Guessing a Photo’s Age

Photographers know better than most: how you edit a photograph can totally chance the perception of that photo for the viewer. But a new online photo history quiz wants to make this explicit, showing how converting a photo to black-and-white can trick us into thinking a photo is much older than it really is.

Oddly Satisfying Recording of Classic Camera Shutter Sounds

We interrupt this regular news day to bring you a short, oddly satisfying recording of classic camera shutter sounds. Created by photographer Ace Noguera, he wanted to share a showcase of vintage cameras that was both visually and aurally satisfying. Thus was born The Evolution Of Camera Shutter Sounds.

How Hand-Painted Photographs Helped Introduce Japan to the World

When you see the term "colorized photo" you probably imagine skilled retouchers working in Photoshop, or perhaps a machine learning algorithm that does that same work automatically. But the original colorized photos were hand-painted prints made from glass plate negatives. And, as Vox explains, the best of these images came out of Japan.

Stop Upscaling and Colorizing Photos and Videos, Historians Say

Colorizing and updating photos and footage from the past is becoming more common and much easier thanks to the advancements of AI. We've shared stories and images of colorized images and videos many times over the past decade, and colorists say it is designed to bring the past forward for a modern audience. However, there are some historians who believe the process is doing more harm than good.

How Kodak is Seeking to Reinvent Itself After Failing to Adapt

The Wall Street Journal recently released a mini-doc that tells the entire story of Kodak—a story of a once-dominant company that made its name in film, and is now seeking to reinvent itself as a drug company after struggling to adapt to a future they, in fact, helped to bring about.

Take a 40-Minute Tour Through the History of Photography

Great Britain's Royal Institution has put together a fascinating "tour through the history of photography." Using his own camera collection as a jumping off point, chemist Andrew Szydlo takes you through a sort of "crash course" on the history of photography in 41 minutes.

Restoring and Using One of the Rarest Cameras on the Planet

Arizona-based journalist and photographer Jim Headley recently set out on a "mission" to shoot an ultra-rare Japanese twin lens reflex camera called the Taroflex. Only 10 of these cameras are thought to still exist, and Headley is the proud owner of a fully-functioning copy in "excellent condition."

Cambridge Uploads Powerful Archive of Photos by Jewish Doctor Exiled by Hitler

The Cambridge Digital Library recently uploaded a powerful collection of images captured by Albert Eckstein in the 1930s. Eckstein, a German Jewish doctor, was exiled by Hitler and the Nazi party in 1935 and he chose to spend his exile in Turkey helping to fight the scourge of infant mortality in the country's poorest communities.

Taking Color Photos with Black and White Film

Photographer Jacob Carlson has put together a photography tutorial you don't expect to see in the year 2020. In his latest video, he'll show you how to use the 160-year-old three color process to capture color photos using black & white film.

The Story of Edwin Land, and the Rise and Fall of Polaroid

Photographer Todd Dominey recently inherited a piece of photo history from his parents: an original Polaroid SX-70. This camera sent Dominey down the rabbit hole of instant photography history, as he discovered the story behind this world-shaking camera, and the man who invented it, Edwin Land.

20 Years with Fujifilm: A Look Back at the FinePix S1 Pro

It was early 2000, and the world looked on towards a new and exciting millennium, thankful that their worst fears surrounding Y2K never surfaced. At the time, I was getting ready to launch my portrait photography business using a completely digital capture and workflow, and was intent on investing in the Nikon D1 as my primary camera.

What’s in a Photograph? Time Machines and Legacies

I don’t remember the first time I became aware of my family photo album, but from a very young age I always found looking at those photos a time absorbing, and totally enthralling pastime. I would sit for long periods of time staring at those familiar faces, all those captured moments of times gone by, and lose myself in a world of wonder.

How Wicker Chairs Became a Portrait Photography Staple for Decades

If you look at album covers from the 1970s, one of the things you'll repeatedly see is a particular type of wicker chair commonly referred to as a peacock chair. Here's an interesting 7.5-minute video by Vox that looks into the history of this photography trope, which was 100 years in the making.

The Shoebox Negatives: My Father’s Photos of 1930s Chicago

Many years ago, my mother handed me a shoebox filled with negatives shot and developed by my father who died when I was very young. The negatives were obviously from a makeshift darkroom: hand-trimmed, inconsistent in every possible way, marked with nicks and thumbtack holes.

One of the World’s Oldest War Photos is Going Up for Auction in 22 Days

Sotheby's has announced the contents of its upcoming Spring photography auction, and it's quite the lineup. The April 3rd auction will include photos by Dorothea Lange, Irving Penn, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and a salt print by Roger Fenton that's thought to be one of the earliest war photographs ever made.

My Portrait Session with Fidel Castro

It was my younger years. I had just published work from the Sudanese Civil War, and the Editor-in-Chief of Germany's GEO magazine, wrote that “Per-Andre risks life and limb for a good shot." Basically, I presume he meant I was a young fool, who took on assignments very few in their clear mind would consider.