With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Categories: Culture | History | Photo project |

The desire to modify the image obtained with the camera is as old as the photograph itself — only the methods have changed. Almost all types of manipulations that we associate with digital photography today were part of the process in the pre-digital era: fewer wrinkles, a thinner waist, add or subtract characters in the picture, and so on.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era
With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Gustave le Graet (1820-1884). Two negatives (sky and sea) are connected on the horizon, this allowed the photographer to combine two different exposure levels.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Maurice Tabard (1897-1984). A room with an eye.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

William Martin. The genre of such postcards flourished in the Midwest in America in the period from 1908 to 1915. Studio photographer William Martin from Kansas came to success thanks to the production of farm-themed images processed with the help of photomontage.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Maurice Guibert (1856-1913). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec — painter and model, circa 1900.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Wanda Wultz. "I'm plus a cat." The portraitist Wultz, associated with the Italian futurist movement, made this frame by combining two negatives on a piece of photographic paper — with the image of her face and the muzzle of her cat.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Herbert George Ponting. In 1927, he patented a lens nozzle, which he called a "controlled distorter" and "a revolutionary optical system for creating caricature images." This is a portrait of the corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Hale Thompson, who is known for providing protection to Al Capone.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

A man juggling his own head, 1880. Saint Thomas D'aquin Photo Studio.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

William Robert Bowles.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Thirteen decapitated soldiers, 1910.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Dizderi. The Imperial Court of Napoleon III.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Owen Angel.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

John Hallowell. A frame allegedly made during a seance, but in fact an overlay of frames.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Unknown American author. The Man with two Heads, 1855.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Unknown American author. The airship at the Empire State Building, 1930.

With your own hands: Processed images of the pre-digital era

Unknown American author.

     

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