Real Photo Postcards

Benjamin Weiss, Lynda Klich

ISBN 10: 0878468846 / ISBN 13: 9780878468843

Published by Museum of Fine Arts,Boston, US, 2022

About this Item

Postcards of a nation embracing a new democratic technology The ubiquity of photography and social media today makes it hard to imagine a time when it was not possible for ordinary people to take their own pictures and send them with short messages over long distances. But it was revolutionary when the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1903, unveiled a new postcard camera that produced a postcard-size negative that could print directly onto a blank card. Suddenly almost anyone, amateurs and entrepreneurial photographers alike, could take a picture-of neighbors at home and at work, local celebrations, newsworthy disasters, sightseeing trips-and turn it into a postcard.This book captures this moment in the history of communications-from around 1900 to 1930-through a generous selection of what came to be known as "real photo postcards" from the extensive Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive. As the formality of earlier photography falls away, these postcards remind us that the past was occupied by people with distinct and individual stories, dramatic, humorous, puzzling and surprising.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780878468843

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Real Photo Postcards
• Publisher: Museum of Fine Arts,Boston, US
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0878468846
• ISBN 13: 9780878468843
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Postcards of a nation embracing a new democratic technology

The ubiquity of photography and social media today makes it hard to imagine a time when it was not possible for ordinary people to take their own pictures and send them with short messages over long distances. But it was revolutionary when the Eastman Kodak Company, in 1903, unveiled a new postcard camera that produced a postcard-size negative that could print directly onto a blank card. Suddenly almost anyone, amateurs and entrepreneurial photographers alike, could take a picture--of neighbors at home and at work, local celebrations, newsworthy disasters, sightseeing trips--and turn it into a postcard.
This book captures this moment in the history of communications--from around 1900 to 1930--through a generous selection of what came to be known as "real photo postcards" from the extensive Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive. As the formality of earlier photography falls away, these postcards remind us that the past was occupied by people with distinct and individual stories, dramatic, humorous, puzzling and surprising.