Wednesday, May 06, 2009

In Living Color


I am a purist by nature and by training as a visual journalist. For these reasons, the thought of colorizing images instantly strikes me in a negative tone. However, when I reflect on the many Civil War period photographers who tinted cartes de visite, or employed colorists to artfully add a bit of pigment to enhance a black and white image, my gut instinct is challenged. Moreover, when I consider the value of examining images from different perspectives, and realizing the power of modern technology (in this case, scanners and Photoshop), my curiosity is aroused. What did these soldiers look like in living color? We'll never see these men exactly how they appeared. But, thanks to Photoshop, as shown here in this carte de visite of Maj. Edward Burgin Knox (left) and Capt. Alexander McRoberts of the Fourty-fourth New York Infantry, we can get an idea of what they might have really looked like.

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Saturday, January 03, 2009

Tinted Cartes de Visite


Late last year I purchased a nicely tinted carte de visite of a long-haired woman dressed in bloomers, identified only as "Nellie." This wonderful photograph prompted me to think about other tinted images in my collection, and I began searching for other colored cartes. In the end, I found a variety of images.

The photograph pictured here is perhaps the boldest example, which, with the exception of the background, is fully tinted. On the other side of the scale, a federal officer poses in black and white, although the medal pinned to his uniform is colored in vivid red and blue. Check out the gallery of eight cartes that illustrate the full range of tinting.

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