Long Lost Honeymoon Photos from 1939

[DecoDame]

This article features Honeymoon photos of a British couple on a road trip just before WW2 - in color!

Love the tents. And the fact that they brought their cat along. (And someone to document it all, apparently)

 

[Stearmen]

This article features Honeymoon photos of a British couple on a road trip just before WW2 - in color!

Love the tents. And the fact that they brought their cat along. (And someone to document it all, apparently)

Amazing that the honeymoon ended just two days before the outbreak of war. My Dad was in High school and my mother in Jr High. In just over three years, my Dad would be on the Queen Mary headed for England. Hard to believe, so much change to so many lives in that short time period!

 

[Fading Fast]

My Dad - like so many from that generation - saw the world / his life divided into "before Pearl Harbor" and "after Pearl Harbor" (of course, in England, it was the invasion of Poland).

 

[Talbot]

To me, color photo's of Britain from this era have a real quality of stillness about them.

I hope they had a great marriage together, thanks for sharing.

 

[Stray Cat]

What a wonderful imagery.
The nature in the back is so playful and it is strange to see the color, since I still can't manage to get it: world was in color back then, but my mind is set on black-and-white presentation.

 

[Fading Fast]

What a wonderful imagery.
The nature in the back is so playful and it is strange to see the color, since I still can't manage to get it: world was in color back then, but my mind is set on black-and-white presentation.

I had the same problem about ten years ago (I'm guessing) when a lot of color film seemed to pop up from WWII. Until then, the war was black and white for me, which set a certain tone, feel, vibe, experience. It took me several years to adjust to seeing WWII in color, but it has made it a richer and, I think, more accurate experience for me. But I completely hear you - it definitely takes some adjustment.

 

[Stray Cat]

But I completely hear you - it definitely takes some adjustment.

Indeed, it does.
It's strange, when you look at it: we accept any modern photography in color, but once our eyes see the folks in the picture are from the 1930's and 1940's it tell us "something is not as it should be". [huh]

 

[Gingerella72]

What a wonderful imagery.
The nature in the back is so playful and it is strange to see the color, since I still can't manage to get it: world was in color back then, but my mind is set on black-and-white presentation.

I understand what you mean. Black and white photos, and even film footage, has a surreal quality to it and its easier to think of people being different, when really, they were just the same.

Regarding WWII, there was a documentary titled "WWII in Color" done a few years ago that has lots of never seen before color footage. Watching this made me see the war in an entirely new way. It can be seen online here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/world-war-2-in-colour/

 

[Fading Fast]

I understand what you mean. Black and white photos, and even film footage, has a surreal quality to it and its easier to think of people being different, when really, they were just the same.

Regarding WWII, there was a documentary titled "WWII in Color" done a few years ago that has lots of never seen before color footage. Watching this made me see the war in an entirely new way. It can be seen online here: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/world-war-2-in-colour/

That is the documentary I was trying to reference (thank you) - it changed viscerally for me the way I think and feel about WWII. It made it more real in the way that a historic item can. To wit, my girlfriend bought me an original gift tin that Princes Mary sent to the British troops for Christmas 1914. Holding it and thinking that the man who received it was probably spending Christmas in a trench in France, made WWI more real, more tactile to me than all the books I've read or movies I've seen about that war. Thinking of the mud up to his feet, the threat of snipers and incoming shells, the rats, the fear of a gas attack somehow became more real knowing that some soldier in one of those trenches probably held this tin. He had all those fears and risks to deal with, while holding this tin (and probably happy he got it).

 

[Stray Cat]

I
a documentary titled "WWII in Color"

Amazing documentary.
THAT precise one is what have finally taught me to understand that those years did, indeed, pass in color.

it changed viscerally for me the way I think and feel about WWII.

My point, exactly. :nod:

 

[Edward]

Love the tents. And the fact that they brought their cat along. (And someone to document it all, apparently)

"The trip was documented by the couple's cousin-twice-removed, Eldred, who was an accomplished photographer."

I wonder whether there had been a plan for the photos to be part of an exhibition or otherwise published; can't have been many people had their honeymoon documented in this way back then - especially not in colour. I love the tones of early colour photography, with some colours being stronger than reality, others muted and washed out. I find the overall effect of this really pleasing - it's something i've often tried to emulate when playing around with my own digital photos. A lot of great colour photos and film of the war itself have emerged in Britain in recent years after having long been suppressed (as memory serves, the Ministry believed that colour images from the front line would have been counter-productive as they would have made it all seem too "real" for Home Front morale to bear). To the best of my knowledge, though, civilian photos like this in colour remain increbily rare until well into the Sixties.

I wish they'd had a few shots of the cat, but these are great. The car must have come in for a lot of attention in the countryside in those days when private car ownership was a rare thing indeed in England.

 

[DecoDame]

Indeed, it does.
It's strange, when you look at it: we accept any modern photography in color, but once our eyes see the folks in the picture are from the 1930's and 1940's it tell us "something is not as it should be". [huh]

It does make historical events more relatable, to me. Suddenly it's not a stretch to imagine them as flesh and blood people or imagine stepping into that world (for better or worse, depending on what's going on). They stop being filed away in my mind under "history" when the images are in color. Then it simply becomes "reality"!

It's a rather startling jolt of a feeling when it happens... Interesting how a change (or in this prior case, lack) of color can cause that kind of detachment.

 

[Stray Cat]

A lot of great colour photos and film of the war itself have emerged in Britain in recent years after having long been suppressed (as memory serves, the Ministry believed that colour images from the front line would have been counter-productive as they would have made it all seem too "real" for Home Front morale to bear).

That is true.
When I observe a black-and-white photography, it tends to appear "artistic" of "out there", but when I saw "WWII in colour" for the first time I was left speechless. Only then did I manage to gasp the full intensity of the war. Color gives life - and on occasion, it's scary.

It does make historical events more relatable, to me.
It's a rather startling jolt of a feeling when it happens... Interesting how a change (or in this prior case, lack) of color can cause that kind of detachment.

:nod:
I've seen so many honeymoon photos, wedding photos.. all black-and-white. So, one I've seen this couple, they seemed to "real". Strange, how out perception on things depends on colour of the matter.

 

[Edward]

It's a rather startling jolt of a feeling when it happens... Interesting how a change (or in this prior case, lack) of color can cause that kind of detachment.

That is true.
When I observe a black-and-white photography, it tends to appear "artistic" of "out there", but when I saw "WWII in colour" for the first time I was left speechless. Only then did I manage to gasp the full intensity of the war. Color gives life - and on occasion, it's scary.

Absolutely. It becomes very obvious why some images were suppressed at the time. It also shows just how different things were back then, i.e. that it was possible to do so.

I do love colour photos from the early-mid twentieth century, though - they certainly combat the notion that everything was drab and grey back then!

 

[PADDY]

I saw a documentary called "From D Day to Berlin." All shot in colour by army photographers / cameramen.
It immediately made it contemporary for me & it didn't feel "so long ago!" The footage was as clear as if it was from the Gulf War or Iraq!
That made a huge impact on me that things like 'The Camps' were not that long ago! It all feels so much more real & recent in colour.

 

[DecoDame]

Thanks, Paddy, I'll have to look for that doc!

EDIT: Found it!
[video=youtube_share;W8iq5_P6_Zw]http://youtu.be/W8iq5_P6_Zw[/video]


Or is it? Seems like the usual reenactment and stock b/w footage so far...

 

[Stray Cat]

I saw a documentary called "From D Day to Berlin."

...haven't seen that one.

Found it!

Great! :thumb: Now, I can watch it, too.

 

[DecoDame]

Self correction frenzy! lol This seems to be it. George Stevens. I'd heard about this, I now realize, but never saw it:

[video=youtube_share;BfDidNBXjJ0]http://youtu.be/BfDidNBXjJ0[/video]

 

[Stray Cat]

Self correction frenzy!

Ah.. good.
Thank you.

 

[PADDY]

That's it...! It truly is amazing in colour!