#1 A Victorian Couple Trying Not To Laugh While Getting Their Portraits Done, 1890s
#2 A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade, 1914/1915
#3 An East German Border Guard Offers A Flower Through A Gap In The Berlin Wall On The Morning It Fell, 1989
There’s something uncanny and absolutely fascinating about looking at old photographs that document the people, the events, the places, the current affairs of the past. It also challenges our perception of time, because as distant as we feel from the subjects shown in the photographs, we still share this similarity that’s impossible to ignore.
According to Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures, old photos affect our perception of time in unique ways like nothing else:
“By making abstract historical events visually concrete, giving us an emotional connection to eras we might not otherwise know very much about, exactly, through books or family stories,” she explained in our previous in-depth interview on a similar topic.
#6 On July 17, 1967, A Florida Lineman Named Randall Champion Accidentally Touched A High-Voltage Line — Which Sent 4,000 Volts Of Electricity Through His Body And Stopped His Heart
The professor at Georgia Tech added that all the subjects of these photos look so alive and have such a range of emotions on their faces—“from determination to silliness to fear to hope. It reminds us that historical events don’t just happen on their own—they involve real people taking real action, for better or for worse.”
While looking back into history from the present standpoint, it’s easier to imagine that life was simpler back in the day. But the photos are evidence that’s not the case. In fact, people in the past led rich and complex lives, just as we do today.
#7 During WWII, Jews In Budapest Were Brought To The Edge Of The Danube, Ordered To Remove Their Shoes, And Shot, Falling Into The Water Below
#8 3 People Pose For A Photo Whilst Wearing Face Masks During The Second Wave Of The Spanish Flu In California; 1918
“For instance, we tend to assume that in the past, women were limited to work as wives and mothers, and we certainly see a number of images here celebrating women’s work in the home. But we also see women doing all sorts of work in the public sphere as well—everything from attending school graduations and working on supercomputers to taking back the streets of postwar London and bouncing drunks out of bars!”
#10 Father, Son, Grandfather And Great Grandfather, New Guinea, 1970
#11 Double Leg Amputee Railway Signalman, James Wide, Photographed Working Alongside His Pet And Assistant, Jack Baboon, In Cape Town During The 1880s
#12 Children Going To School Having To Cross A River By Pulley, Modena, Italy, 1959
“And that is what old photos do best: they remind us that people in the past have had many of the same challenges and triumphs as we have, and that we can look to them for inspiration regarding how to make sense of the present and build new futures,” Yaszek concluded.
#13 A British Sailor Removing The Leg Chains Off An Enslaved Man Who Had Worn Them For Three Years
#14 18th Century Device That Allowed Researchers To Work/Read Up To 8 Open Books At A Time
#15 This Is About A Victim, Not About Who Is To Blame. It Would Be Lovely To Honor Her And Others Who Lost Their Lives Here, And Debate Specifics Elsewhere
#16 Knife Grinders In France 1902, They Worked Lying Down To Save Their Backs And Had Dogs Sit On Their Legs For Warmth
#18 The Moment When President Bush Was Informed About The 9/11 Terrorist Attack, 2001
#19 A Photograph Of A Filipino-American Family Taken More Than A Decade After The Us Colonization Of The Islands. The Photo Dates Back To 1912
#20 British Soldier Retrieving Bandages From The Kit Of A Dog During Wwi, 1915
