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

[Bassman]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...es-W-Cushman-reveal-1940s-life-Big-Apple.html

 

[dhermann1]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Talbot]

Missed them previously. Thanks for sharing.

T

 

[Blackjack]

very cool...never saw those before!!

 

[Dan'l]

Thanks for sharing, I'd never seen those.

It was interesting to see the horse drawn cart collecting scrap in 1941.

 

[Hat Head]

Great set of photos from 1940s era New York, in color.

Some very interesting photos, including many hats:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036932/New-York-City-photos-Charles-W-Cushman-reveal-1940s-life-Big-Apple.html?fb_ref=LikeButtonBottom&fb_source=home_oneline

 

[Forgotten Man]

I've seen some of those before, lovely stuff, just lovely. Real life, not make-believe.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Now that's the New York I knew. I was born in 1950 and those places were basically the same.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I found this picture fascinating in that it could just as easily have been a scene from 50-100 years before.

 

[Fletch]

Indiana University has Charles Cushman's color film archive. I remember he did a fair bit of candid stuff with young ladies on the Chicago lakefront - but just as many shots of his wife Jean, whom he obviously cherished even after she shot him and herself in a failed murder-suicide.

Article about Cushman, his life, and his photos

 

[HadleyH]

Some very interesting photos, including many hats:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036932/New-York-City-photos-Charles-W-Cushman-reveal-1940s-life-Big-Apple.html?fb_ref=LikeButtonBottom&fb_source=home_oneline

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!

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

 

[scottyrocks]

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.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

One cool detail that in more modern made films that take place in that era with surtain "restored vehicles" occasionally gets goofed on, is the fact that the paint on the cars wasn't quite as glossy.

 

[Dated Guy]

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]

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!

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

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.....!!

 

[R.G. White]

Great photos!

 

[flat-top]

VERY cool! Thanks!

 

[Phineas Lamour]

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.