A few months ago I had a revelation. Instead of being dependent on Flickr users to post their old Kodachrome images I would take matters into my own hands. I started buying whole collections of slides from the 50s and 60s at estate sales, flea markets and elsewhere. I would then send the slides away to be scanned. The process is super slow, but the results are amazing. Especially since I am amassing such a great collection of Kodachrome Americana. And I plan on sharing it all with you here. This post below is the first of many to come.
This batch of images is a mish-mash of two different collections. You can tell that images three and four are not the same as the flannel shirt images. The flannel gents and the boathouse are (I believe) are from Minnesota in the 1950s.
Great idea, TM. You’ve got some great photo treasures and history there
Awesome stuff. I love looking at your Kodachrome posts. Thanks for sharing.
Btw, I’m still looking for some type of photoshop plugin or something similar to reprocess my own digital photos. There’s no soul to modern digital photos, in my humble opinion.
Good stuff. I’ve started collecting old film photos in addition to still shooting with film. I’m usually more selective and pick out individual prints, but buying batches of old slides from estate sales is a cool idea. It would be rad to have a party with these being projected with multiple Carousels.
Geoff, that’s why you need to shoot actual film. Sure it costs more, but it’s so much cooler, and the cameras are way better. You can’t fake the old school funk.
I’d love to know where you send these old slides to be scanned and processed into digital images.
Scan Cafe did the processing. Thanks to whom ever turned me on to them via the ACL Twitter.
Michael this is a great idea !!
Michael, awesome idea. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your findings.
Thanks for sharing, man….this stuff was my reality and you tapped into a motherlode of old memories —
Such wonderful, wonderful evocative pictures that so capture a time and place and what’s been lost…..quoting Faulkner seems appropriate: ” The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past….”
Great idea. There is no better place to see how America lived and dressed than a Kodachrome slide.
Amazing.
I can’t wait to see more of these!
Most definitely brilliant. I think it will prove to be an invaluable resource for many of us. Amazing how it can take another’s perspective to appreciate something you may have seen a million times. I’ve flipped through thousand of my parent’s 60’s and 70’s travel slides, and my grandparents before that, but always been blinded scrutinizing the photos for people I recognize, rather than opening my eyes to the clothes, compositions, colors and context. Nice work, Michael. Keep ’em coming.
What a great idea! Looking forward to seeing more. The flannel shirts are classic poses –
flannel shirts, good good
Those photos are great. Please continue to post more – hunting in the fall..
In that first pic, what kind of hat is the guy on the far left wearing? Lots of old-timers had those when I was a kid, now I can’t find any.
Fantastic!! Little serendipitous moments in time.
Greetings from Minnesota. My grandfather rocked this hat-no-matter-what-look until he passed away last year.
These really have me pining for the easy, unironic and in-action masculinity of men like this. Red Wing wannabes and Best Made axes are pretty but alas….
Wonderful stuff.