Florence Owens Thompson and her children. Nipomo, California, 1936Did you know that this photograph belongs to you and that you can have a print (any size you want), for the price of the paper.
How about a Walker Evans like the one above. This will cost a little more but it's definately affordable?Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans amongst other great photographers, worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression, the images are in the public domain and are available from the LOC, Wahington. These are available to either download to your computer or buy for a small fee, so you can own a true original and genuine masterpiece.
All the scanned files are available in a range of formats, but you really want the "uncompressed archival TIFF" versions which will contain the most data and allow you to make impressively large prints. You can print the photographs at those "do it yourself" machines inside shops - look for Fujicolor Crystal Archival, or Kodak Archival printing, but you will have to convert the TIFF to JPEG (converter here). Personally, I wouldn't bother using an inkjet printer, the ink and the paper aren't really appropriate for photographs of this period.
The problem is, the Library of Congress has millions of photographs and is scanning hundreds more everyday. Last night I intended to spend an hour looking at historic houses but ended the search 3 hours later with a fine portrait of Sitting Bull.
I think it's wonderful that such special historic images are being made available to the people - long may it continue!
The photographs on this blog were taken by me, unless otherwise noted. If you'd like to share them with friends or use them in some way, please let people know where you found them, or send me an 
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Oh, betcha-by-golly-wow, do I EVER know that picture. Love this post, but am supposed to be working instead of playing on the computer, so I'll be back later!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeedy!! Thank you for the info in this post!
ReplyDeleteWhat a resource! One which I dare not click on until Wednesday (yes, I'm STILL supposed to be working, brought the laptop home for the week end). Okay, well maybe I DID already click on it just now, but only long enough to learn about Walker Evans. What wonderful photographs. And I'm very interested in what he said, that the act of photographing is "all done instinctively, as far as I can see, not consciously," and am wondering what you think of that statement? Yes, I'm talking to you Tim:)
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