Bringing some color to history, The Paper Time Machine is an amazing collaboration between Wolfgang Wild (creator and curator of Retronaut) as well as Jordan Lloyd of Dynamichrome. In the book, more than 100 photographs have been thoroughly researched and restored in a manner which brings history to life.
From iconic pictures like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother as well as Lewis Hine‘s Powerhouse Mechanic and more, the photos are unbelievable. In the book, each one of the 124 colorized images is juxtaposed with its black and white version, allowing readers to see what a difference a little color can make.
Among the photographs, there is also a set of images from Ellis Island, initially taken in the 1900s. Lloyd expertly brings color and character to those anonymous immigrants from around the globe as they hope for better lives in the US. Through color, these subjects seem closer to us and our own time, linking history and the issues we're currently facing.
As Lloyd puts it: “These details bridge the gap between decades to something that everyone can suddenly relate to—seeing something from that long ago in color helps us understand it a little better because color plays a major part in how we interact with the world.”
Florence Thompson with one of her children, Watsonville, California, 1936. (Photo: Dorothea Lange/Library of Congress)
Powerhouse mechanic working on a steam pump, 1920. (Photo: Lewis Hine/WPA)
Wilbur Wright pilots a full-size glider in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on October 10, 1902. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Ice grotto in Antarctica, 1911. (Photo: Herbert Ponting/Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library)
A Douglas SBD “Dauntless” dive bomber balances on its nose after crash landing on a carrier flight deck in the Pacific, 1943. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza, between 1867 and 1899. (Photo: Maison Bonfils/Library of Congress)
The Golden Gate Bridge under construction in 1934. (Photo: Library of Congress)
San Francisco about six weeks after the San Francisco earthquake and fire, 1906. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Tower Bridge in London under construction in 1889. (Photo: English Heritage/Getty Images)
Algerian man at Ellis Island circa 1910. (Photo: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library)
A Laplander at Ellis Island, ca. 1910 (Photo: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library)
An Alsace-Lorraine girl circa 1906 at Ellis Island. (Photo: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library)
A Guadeloupean woman at Ellis Island circa 1911. (Photo: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library)
A Danish man at Ellis Island in 1909. (Photo: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library)
The “Empire State Express” (New York Central Railroad) passes through Washington Street, Syracuse, New York, 1905. (Photo: Library of Congress)
The beach and Cliff House, San Francisco, circa 1902. (Photo: Library of Congress)
Sumi and Sada Tamura, daughters of Mr. Teijiro Tamura, former Third Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in the United States in Washington, D.C., 1925. (Photo: Library of Congress)
People arriving at the Chicago Theater in 1949, taken by 21-year-old Stanley Kubrick on assignment for Look magazine. (Photo: Stanley Kubrick/Look Magazine/Library of Congress)
Inventor John Archibald Purves tests his Dynasphere at Weston-super-Mare in 1932
Female samurai, circa 1880.
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All colorization by Jordan Lloyd
Reference: Mymodernmet
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