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Color photos of 1940's NYC from UK's Daily Mail

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
These have been posted here a number of times, but I never tire of seeing them again. Some of these shots were taken only 4 years before I was born, right here in New York. What a time machine. Thanks for posting.
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
Me neither.
I viewed them from a friend in the UK.
You really have to look at not only the subjects, but the whole surroundings to get the full effect.
 

skyvue

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,221
Location
New York City
Just FYI to anyone interested -- prints are available of all those photos are very reasonable prices. I own an 8x10 print of the shadowy Chinatown shot myself.
 
Messages
13,376
Location
Orange County, CA
I found this picture fascinating in that it could just as easily have been a scene from 50-100 years before.

article-2036932-0DDE188400000578-485_964x669.jpg
 

HadleyH

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,811
Location
Top of the Hill


Thank you for posting this, beautiful pictures! :)


I've heard of chestnut vendors and other sort of street vendors, but I never knew there were sweet potato vendors too!

article-2036932-0DDE17F400000578-823_470x673.jpg





...and apparently it was more common than I thought, another sweet potato vendor in New York, this one taken by photographer Nat Fein

PushcartStreetVendorSellingSweetPotatosbyNatFeinCopyrightsNatFeinEstate90DPI.jpg
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,161
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
The differences between the color, and black and white photos is just startling to me. The B&Ws are what I (we?) are used to and they paint a picture (if you'll pardon the pun) that screams vintage. Our brains are so accustomed to it, as if this is the way the world really looked back then. And then there is a color picture from the same era, and one could believe that it is a set piece from a period film made today. Not so with the black and white. It has an undeniable authenticity. I find it fascinating and can't stop looking at them side by side.
 

Dated Guy

Familiar Face
Messages
94
Location
East Coast Gt. Britain
Such cracking pictures, the third one took my fancy, no telephone wires, no telegraph poles, no mobile phones being seen,although a rather fetchingly dated scene of a street busker with a banjo on the right, with a shoe shine boy behind him, marvelous stuff, thanks for the pictures.....
 

Dated Guy

Familiar Face
Messages
94
Location
East Coast Gt. Britain
Thank you for posting this, beautiful pictures! :)


I've heard of chestnut vendors and other sort of street vendors, but I never knew there were sweet potato vendors too!

article-2036932-0DDE17F400000578-823_470x673.jpg





...and apparently it was more common than I thought, another sweet potato vendor in New York, this one taken by photographer Nat Fein

PushcartStreetVendorSellingSweetPotatosbyNatFeinCopyrightsNatFeinEstate90DPI.jpg

That firewood attached to the side would raise a few eyebrows with Health and Safety these days, especially if they knew why it was there.....!!
 

Phineas Lamour

Practically Family
Messages
611
Location
Crossville, Tennessee
You don't see many color photos from that era. When you do it is a nice treat. I like to look an the colors of the hats and clothes. In black and white you can't tell that people actually wore colors back then and not just black and gray. Did you see the suits on those "homeless people"? They were dressed better than most people dress today.
 

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