vintagephotos

In 2011, a modern-day treasure hunter was browsing through an antique shop in Fresno, California. Flipping through boxes, he came across an old photograph. An unsmiling group of men, 19th century Americans it seemed, were playing croquet in front of a wooden building in a rural setting. It was an interesting photograph. He paid $2 for it and walked out.

A couple of days ago, National Geographic released this fascinating look inside the magazine's vintage photo archive and introduced us to the dedicated man who runs the whole thing, Bill Bonner.

Then-and-now photos are always fascinating to see. Historical scenes come to life when blended into or placed side-by-side with modern-day photographs of cities we all know very well. Be it Paris, New York or San Francisco, most of the best-known cities have gotten the then-and-now treatment to great effect by many a photographer.

The most recent Then and Now series we've run across, however, isn't just meant to show how the scenery has changed. When photographer and historian Marc A. Hermann created the images, he purposely used only vintage (Note: and sometimes gruesome) crime scene photos to fill in the "then" part.

Check out this vintage photo of a halloween party group portrait. It might be hard to believe, but it's not actually a photograph, but a pencil drawing by 28-year-old Scottish artist Paul Chiappe. He creates insanely detailed artworks that look just like old, fading, blurry, black-and-white photographs from decades ago. The "photos" show family pictures, elementary school class pictures, and even standard yearbook pictures.

Did you know that in vintage tintype photographs of infants mothers were often present in the photo but hidden by a veil? Subjects needed to remain still due to the longer exposure times required back then, so mothers were often asked to hold their children tightly while the portraits were being exposed. It was common practice back then, but the resulting photos are pretty eerie when you look at them now.