Photo blog 25

I didn’t take this photo–my mother did.  I’m actually in this photo–I’m Charlie Chaplin.  My brother, Jon Snoek, is the Ghostbuster (I made his ghost-trapping “backpack” for him), and my sister, Sara Snoek, is an angel.  I think the year was 1987, but don’t quote me on that.

I decided to post it for two reasons.  One, I’m planning to post Halloween-related photos the rest of October.  And two–and more importantly–I’ve been on a binge of awesome vintage photography lately.  I got hooked when I found the band Summer Camp and, while searching for more information about them, stumbled across their excellent vintage photo blog:  all the post titles are titles of their songs, but that’s the only text you’ll see–this blog is entirely photographic, most of the pics from the `60s, `70s, and `80s.

That same day, in a wonderful moment of synchronicity, I also found a link to a Newsweek photo-essay composed of anonymous vintage photos that John Foster finds in garage sales.  It’s a fantastic treat.

And then today, my friend Ryan Werner sent me a link to yet another photo story, this one from the Denver Post, which shows–amazingly–rare color photographs from the tail end of the Great Depression.  As far as I can tell, these photos are not colorized–they were shot and developed in color, back in the 1940s.  It’s a riveting collection.  I’m so used to seeing Depression-era photography in mood-appropriate grainy black-and-white that seeing these images in color is almost beyond belief: the images are so rich and so clear you sometimes swear you’re really looking at stills from a contemporary movie set, not 70-year-old photos.  And yet that same contemporary appearance–and the mostly candid nature of these photos–make it that much easier to recognize ourselves in these people born a century ago.

So, I’ve had vintage on the brain and thought it might be fun to embarrass my siblings with this old photo.  Granted, 1987 isn’t yet truly “vintage,” but it’s getting there.