Messing With Your Sense Of Past

Kodachrome film was introduced in 1936 but we usually only see black and white photography from that era. It’s as if the Great Depression happened in a black and white world. These terrific color photos from that era brings the past a little closer. (Via Adam Greenfield)

The past in black and white reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip with Calvin and his Dad:

Calvin: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?

Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It’s just the WORLD was black and white then.

C: Really?

D: Yep. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

C: That’s really weird.

D: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

C: But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?

D: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.

C: But… but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?

D: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the ’30s.

C: So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?

D: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

I really miss the Calvin and Hobbes strip…