WWI Color Images

[AngusPodgorny1969]

http://lightbox.time.com/2013/11/11/rare-color-photographs-from-the-trenches-of-world-war-i/?iid=lb-gal-moreon#3

Not sure of this has been posted here previously but I thought it might be of interest. I don't game WWI but these color images from the period are interesting.  Note that these are not "colorized" photos and simply use an early form of color photo technology.

There are 15 images in the series but I thought this particular image was especially interesting since, while from WWI, it hints at the uniforms of the late 19th century:

[Cubs]

Those are amazing, so evocative. I never knew colour photography had been going for more than a century.

Or that it was invented by the candlestick from Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'.

[AngusPodgorny1969]

They certainly help one to feel more connected to the subjects. I was born in the 60s and the quality of the color reminds me of photos from when I was a baby/toddler.  B&W photos, while certainly beautiful, can sometimes make subjects feel distant.  Those men in the photos look like the men in family photos from the 60s.

I tell my sons that to get a sense of of their own connections to the past think about what the world was like just 100 years and 50 years before their birth.  Then imagine themselves as 50 years old and realize that the period of their birth would feel as distant to their own kids.

My kids were born in 2000 and 2001, so as we approach the 100th anniversary of WWI they're 14 and 13 respectively.  The last WWI veteran who served in combat just died in 2009.  Which means even my kids could have shaken the hand of men from that photo had one of them lived that long.

100 years before my birth was the end of the American civil war and 50 years before was WWI. I met my wife's great aunt who was the daughter of an ACW veteran and we have a friend whose great grandfather was a slave. It's not distant history.

Just 86 years before the birth of my kids WWI started. And 50 years before their births we had not yet sent a person into orbit and the world for most people was still largely analog.  I work in tech and my kids love computers but I hope they never lose the wonder of the past.

[mrtn]

Colour photos does make it easier to relate to pictures. I found this link earlier today.

[FramFramson]

I thought this would be another re-post of the Russian photos, but was very surprised to see a new set!

Very nice collection.

[Youngknight]

Wonderful photos consdiering they're not colorized.  Always amazed by the variety of shades of colors of the uniforms.

Thanks for posting.

[Cubs]

I met my wife's great aunt who was the daughter of an ACW veteran and we have a friend whose great grandfather was a slave. It's not distant history.

It always freaks me out that kids today view the Falklands conflict from the same distance I viewed WW2 when I was playing with toy soldiers in the 70's!

[grant]

Weird, eh? The first war I remember is the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Then the Falklands. Grenada. Desert Storm. Yugoslavia. Desert Storm II. Afghanistan Redux.

I met a WWII vet once and really got him to open up about his d-day landing experiences. That was cool.