The Purpose of This Site
Primarily, it’s to make our past seem more relatable. Adding color to old photos provides a more realistic look for a modern audience. Moreover, the photos inside this site attempt to bring us closer to the people who’ve lived and died before us. I hope that the website will foster others to join in adding a bit of color to the past.
Our adulthood centers on graduation from high school. For this reason, many of the first pictures come directly from senior photos inside high school yearbooks found online. I’ve focused on small communities or defunct high schools in urban areas, primarily within the years between 1920 and 1950. As the work progresses, I’ll move into other areas of interest and different generations.
As much as I try to be accurate with the colorization of these photos, much of the work is subjective. Historical accuracy suffers given the lack of knowledge about many of the individuals. Simple things like source materials, typically negatives, and scanned pictures, often carry graininess and poor focus. The use of AI makes mistakes so keep that in mind when reviewing the work.
