Contarama
Well-known
As someone born in 1970, I can't rightfully say I feel nostalgic for the '50s. But I do feel drawn to the things from that era, for sure. Most of my cameras are from then! That said, I would never want our world today to be like then. The times have changed for the better. We've come a long way.
Im 1970 model as well and sort of feel the same way. The crap has been going on forever they just modernize it. Its always the same old crap too. Think about it to much and it will make you ill.
Michael Markey
Veteran
I was born in November `50.
The fifties were rather bleak in the UK.
The country was still suffering from the effects of the war and rationing of goods was still in place.
I still have a ration card some where.
My dad was always taking photographs during that period though ,on a Kodak Hawkette 2 which is sitting on the bookcase behind me now.
Holidays were always the Isle of Man ,which seemed very exotic to a young child.
My first pictures were taken in 1962 on a trip to Belgium using that same Hawkette No
2.
They were street shots same as I take now.
I was still using the camera at the end of the sixties .
I don`t recall having it at the first Isle of White festival in `69 (right after Woodstock ,Bob Dylan and the Band headlining) but did take it to the second in `70.
The fifties were rather bleak in the UK.
The country was still suffering from the effects of the war and rationing of goods was still in place.
I still have a ration card some where.
My dad was always taking photographs during that period though ,on a Kodak Hawkette 2 which is sitting on the bookcase behind me now.
Holidays were always the Isle of Man ,which seemed very exotic to a young child.
My first pictures were taken in 1962 on a trip to Belgium using that same Hawkette No
2.
They were street shots same as I take now.
I was still using the camera at the end of the sixties .
I don`t recall having it at the first Isle of White festival in `69 (right after Woodstock ,Bob Dylan and the Band headlining) but did take it to the second in `70.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
That's appalling!
philosli
Established
These photos are mediocre at best. In addition, all the people shot in the photos were white. Whoever edited the clip pretended that America had no minority. I don't know why the OP wants to "promote" this clip.
There are much better photographs shot on Kodakchrome of the yesteryear online.
There are much better photographs shot on Kodakchrome of the yesteryear online.
Yokosuka Mike
Abstract Clarity
That's appalling!
Keith, you always call it like you see it and I agree with you 100%.
Mike
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
These photos are mediocre at best. In addition, all the people shot in the photos were white. Whoever edited the clip pretended that America had no minority. I don't know why the OP wants to "promote" this clip.
There are much better photographs shot on Kodakchrome of the yesteryear online.
Photos are photos, they can be enjoyable to watch regardless if the subjects appear to be white, black, brown, yellow or green or if no human beings are in them at all. They can be from any era or depicting any place.
Just recently I wondered about how come there are very few 19th century photographs from German states*/Germany online? (*Germany was formed in 1871)
One would think that technically advanced and a relatively wealthy place(s) on earth would have a myriad of photos to show, no different than Gt. Britain, America or France from the same time frame.
This is about most of all I could find:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/p...rmany-in-photographs-fotostrecke-92001-2.html
I am sure now someone will complain that these photos are "No Good" because they show no diversity.
Common sense has left the building in some people, simple joy has to be replaced with their mind concocted psychosis or else you are not part of the current group-think mantra, which ironically and sadly is all about stifling diversity.
Photography images are not about diversity or non diversity, it is always about the image , pleasant, non-pleasant, neutral, exciting, whimsical, humdrum, thought provoking or plain forgettable, it is all good and necessary and comes with the territory.
Folks should get a grip of themselves and take time to smell the roses.
Life is not all bad or sinister.
Learn to laugh once in a while, we will not get out of this world alive, so why be miserable?
Rick Waldroup
Well-known
Photos are photos, they can be enjoyable to watch regardless if the subjects appear to be white, black, brown, yellow or green or if no human beings are in them at all. They can be from any era or depicting any place.
Just recently I wondered about how come there are very few 19th century photographs from German states*/Germany online? (*Germany was formed in 1871)
One would think that technically advanced and a relatively wealthy place(s) on earth would have a myriad of photos to show, no different than Gt. Britain, America or France from the same time frame.
This is about most of all I could find:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/p...rmany-in-photographs-fotostrecke-92001-2.html
I am sure now someone will complain that these photos are "No Good" because they show no diversity.
Common sense has left the building in some people, simple joy has to be replaced with their mind concocted psychosis or else you are not part of the current group-think mantra, which ironically and sadly is all about stifling diversity.
Photography images are not about diversity or non diversity, it is always about the image , pleasant, non-pleasant, neutral, exciting, whimsical, humdrum, thought provoking or plain forgettable, it is all good and necessary and comes with the territory.
Folks should get a grip of themselves and take time to smell the roses.
Life is not all bad or sinister.
Learn to laugh once in a while, we will not get out of this world alive, so why be miserable?
Dude, you are the one who titled your post, Make America Nineteen Fifties Again.
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
Life is not all bad or sinister.
For some people constant conditioned by the constant repetition of the two minute hate it apparently is. You don’t even need to have been there to know more than those who were.
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
Dude, you are the one who titled your post, Make America Nineteen Fifties Again.
I am sure that if I posted a link to the TV series " Happy Days" someone will complain and moan about it
The best way to defuse something other than not mentioning is to spoof it,or as the Brits say " taking the p*ss out it" .
Some it seems, have missed my point.
If I said "MANTA", Make America nineteen thirties again, or make America nineteen twenties again..would it make a difference?
Someone somewhere will get their knickers in a bunch regardless.
People tend to see what they want to see, that is the charm of exhibiting photographs and of photography in general.
jarski
Veteran
As European, I don't get it. Is there something controversial in "Make America Nineteen Fifties Again"?
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
I was born in November `50.
The fifties were rather bleak in the UK.
The country was still suffering from the effects of the war and rationing of goods was still in place.
I still have a ration card some where.
My dad was always taking photographs during that period though ,on a Kodak Hawkette 2 which is sitting on the bookcase behind me now.
Holidays were always the Isle of Man ,which seemed very exotic to a young child.
My first pictures were taken in 1962 on a trip to Belgium using that same Hawkette No
2.
They were street shots same as I take now.
I was still using the camera at the end of the sixties .
I don`t recall having it at the first Isle of White festival in `69 (right after Woodstock ,Bob Dylan and the Band headlining) but did take it to the second in `70.
Butlins holiday camps were what most could afford for a holiday in the 1950s in the UK. Wages were very low and new camera gear was highly taxed there too.
Musician Graham Nash had a sad and poignant story about his working class dad liking photography and resorting to stealing a camera ..and the whole episode not ending well.
I always wanted to visit the Isle of Man, the motorcycle TT race would be interesting and so would seeing the area of the legendary Gef, the talking mongoose
dave lackey
Veteran
Thanks for posting a link to a video that is quite interesting! Having grown up in the 50s, it is always nice to see images from the past. Nostalgia is not a disease...
...memories are all we have and it gives me pleasure to occasionally see old photos as I remember my loved ones, family and friends. It is good for the soul and grounds me in the present.
The future is uncertain. And the end is always near... (from The Doors). We are who we are because of our past and how we experience life each moment in the present.
The poem by Walt Whitman that basically says we are who we are because of our past experiences was recently published in a CNN article. I must look it up again for the title because I was struck by a parallel article about neuroscience and how our brains are constantly building new synapses every moment we experience. The present confirms the past. Cool!
While I do not want to be young again, I would love to have a red and white 50s Corvette to enjoy even for a brief time!!!!





The future is uncertain. And the end is always near... (from The Doors). We are who we are because of our past and how we experience life each moment in the present.
The poem by Walt Whitman that basically says we are who we are because of our past experiences was recently published in a CNN article. I must look it up again for the title because I was struck by a parallel article about neuroscience and how our brains are constantly building new synapses every moment we experience. The present confirms the past. Cool!
While I do not want to be young again, I would love to have a red and white 50s Corvette to enjoy even for a brief time!!!!
dave lackey
Veteran
A question:
Film, vintage cameras and gear... is that part of an unhealthy nostalgia, or something to eschew because it was from a time or place that has s negative connection?
IMHO, we must embrace the lessons and good things from the past as we move forward in our journey in life. I believe in the power of the individual to make a difference in the world for good. So let's just do it!
Film, vintage cameras and gear... is that part of an unhealthy nostalgia, or something to eschew because it was from a time or place that has s negative connection?
IMHO, we must embrace the lessons and good things from the past as we move forward in our journey in life. I believe in the power of the individual to make a difference in the world for good. So let's just do it!
Prest_400
Multiformat
Sometimes I do feel a sense of nostalgia with the optimist part of the 50s. Kodachrome, the style, classic vehicles the jet age and atomic age futurism.
As a 90s born, ain't been anywhere close but this very weekend my hometown celebrates a Rock n Roll festival and becomes a small retro bubble. The 50s in Spain were under a bleak authoritarian dictatorship, so nothing nostalgic about it.
In another way, lately I do feel late 90s-early 2000s pre great recession nostalgia quite often. Of course, as a different generation, got different points in time.
Early 1990-2000s film is still here in the form of consumer C41 film.
As a 90s born, ain't been anywhere close but this very weekend my hometown celebrates a Rock n Roll festival and becomes a small retro bubble. The 50s in Spain were under a bleak authoritarian dictatorship, so nothing nostalgic about it.
In another way, lately I do feel late 90s-early 2000s pre great recession nostalgia quite often. Of course, as a different generation, got different points in time.
Well, the cameras are still there and Ektachrome is coming back. Sometimes E6 does approach a quite "retro" look itself, not Kodachrome, but it does the effect as well. With a faster shutter speed or ND, it's back to ISO 64... I feel lucky having tried a few rolls of KR64 back on the tail end of it.I, for one, am glad we are not stuck in the 1950s!
However, I think the "golden age" for cameras was between the mid 1960s and early 1980s, when film was slow(er) and lenses were designed to do the best with the available film.
I think the real sweet spot was maybe 10-15 years ago, using the combination of 1970s glass and early 2000s film, which was at a peak and had a good selection.
Early 1990-2000s film is still here in the form of consumer C41 film.
Dogman
Veteran
I am visual, hence why I always gravitated to sketching, oil painting and of course photography, cameras, film development and wet darkroom print making.
I did not create the past and I am sure there was good and bad in every decade just like there is now in every place on this place we call earth.
Everyone it seems has turned into a self righteous social justice warrior at the drop of a hat. Even just showing innocent photos of the past has now got to turn into a black-hat vs white-hat slug-fest .
The social engineering manipulators have done a great job of divide and conquer. Few can actually see the forest for the trees.
No one has a sense of humour any more and everything is now a big deal.
I just enjoy looking at photographs, whether they were taken in now or the 1990s or the 19th century or the 1950s, simple as that .
The medium is the message .
A very wise statement.
It seems we are no longer allowed to enjoy anything without first checking if it's endorsed by the watchdogs of societal acceptability. Maybe that's one of the reasons for the predominate mediocrity of almost everything produced today, photographically and otherwise.
Michael Markey
Veteran
Yep Graham Nash was born here in Blackpool (as was John Mahoney … Frasier ) but his family moved back to Manchester.
I first went to the TT in `57.
Geoff Duke was the man to beat back then.
Always rode for Norton I seem to recall.
I first went to the TT in `57.
Geoff Duke was the man to beat back then.
Always rode for Norton I seem to recall.
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
A question:
Film, vintage cameras and gear... is that part of an unhealthy nostalgia, or something to eschew because it was from a time or place that has s negative connection?
IMHO, we must embrace the lessons and good things from the past as we move forward in our journey in life. I believe in the power of the individual to make a difference in the world for good. So let's just do it!![]()
Great question, Dave !
This is or was a rangefinder camera forum, a type of film camera that fell out of favour in around 1959.. when the SLR camera started to be the latest and the greatest, no different than the current hoopla on FF mirrorless cameras.
This very forum has its founding roots in nostalgia.
There is good and bad in any time period.
Saying one decade in one huge land mass was all bad is as ridiculous as saying everyone at a particular moment in time is either very happy, or very sad, which is incorrect.
Human beings of all classes, races, ages, nationalities, religions or sexes are mercurial in their mood and there is nothing fixed.
Most human beings of any classification, if is there is actually such a thing as a classification of human beings are basically decent and well meaning creatures who want to do good for themselves and for their kin and for others.
For the most part, that has been my life experience, which has been a very positive one.
Michael Markey
Veteran
The 50s in Spain were under a bleak authoritatian dictatorship, so nothing nostalgic about it.
I was travelling through Spain when that bleak period ended.
I remember being woken up at gunpoint one night on the road to Salamanca by the Guardia Civil.
Bleak times indeed.
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
Yep Graham Nash was born here in Blackpool (as was John Mahoney … Frasier ) but his family moved back to Manchester.
I first went to the TT in `57.
Geoff Duke was the man to beat back then.
Always rode for Norton I seem to recall.
Yes, The famous Norton Manx !
That was the machine to beat, the Gilera Saturno came close in the early 1950s but could not sustain it in the long haul.
The UK has produced some great Musicians/Singers that is for sure.
I seen the live Paul McCartney ( really Bill Sheppard playing the part of PM) podcast concert from NY last night here in Canada.
Amazing !! the guy has just turned 81 or is turning 81 on Sunday and gave a rousing performance, physically tiring enough even for a 31 year old singer/musician, great stuff !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QGxFpSb6Sc
charjohncarter
Veteran
Great question, Dave !
This is or was a rangefinder camera forum, a type of film camera that fell out of favour in around 1959.. when the SLR camera started to be the latest and the greatest, no different than the current hoopla on FF mirrorless cameras.
This very forum has its founding roots in nostalgia.
There is good and bad in any time period.
Saying one decade in one huge land mass was all bad is as ridiculous as saying everyone at a particular moment in time is either very happy, or very sad, which is incorrect.
Human beings of all classes, races, ages, nationalities, religions or sexes are mercurial in their mood and there is nothing fixed.
Most human beings of any classification, if is there is actually such a thing as a classification of human beings are basically decent and well meaning creatures who want to do good for themselves and for their kin and for others.
For the most part, that has been my life experience, which has been a very positive one.
Very good xray, I've basically been happy all my life including the 50s. I lived in a country for three years that was ruled by a military dictator (a good one), but guns were everywhere (and they used them). It was a peaceful time (if you behaved) and the best three years I've had. I even was able to photograph the military dictator and his guards didn't jump me:

Share:
-
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.