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 
Posts
