BW pictures colorized in book

[Anita]

(12-04-2024 04:13 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  While this has nothing to do with Lincoln, I would like to get some reactions to something I saw that really bothers me. There is a new biography of Woodrow Wilson by Christopher Cox called "Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn." In the section of pictures, every photograph has been artificially colorized. Pictures of people like Charles Sumner that existed long before color photography was even possible. This really bothers me. I have no idea why it was even done, but it's dishonest, at least in my mind. The average person likely wouldn't care, but to me it is representing something that never existed and is historically false, not just inaccurate, but a historical lie. Am I overreacting?

Best
Rob

For me it's the black and white historic photo that is dishonest in the sense that it doesn't represent reality. The color technology didn't exist but history has always happened in color. Color doesn't change what the photographer captured but creates what he really saw through the lens.
As an older person who grew up with black & white photography, I like its sense of nostalgia and the artistic way it can create mood, atmosphere. I also like seeing the world as Lincoln would have lived it- in color.