Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Should Have Seen It In Color

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If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should’ve seen it in color.

— Jamey Johnson

Love that song.

As a historian, my mission has always been to make the past present — to feel its resonance in the now. I am fortunate in that my historical wheelhouse — the frontiers of the late 19th and early 20th century — fell in the era of photography. Yet black-and-white photographs lack immediacy.

From the earliest days of photography, artists hand-tinted shots. That process, of course, was limited — it took way too much time and skill to become a common practice.

Nowadays, though, computer technology allows colorization of photographs to an unprecedented degree. Done well, a colorized photograph from, say, the Boer War, reaches through time and grabs you by the shirtfront in a way a black-and-white shot never could.

An Anglo-Boer War Facebook Group has been running a series of colorized shots that are very well-done, indeed.

What I’d really like to see is more quality colorizations from the Mexican Revolution.

 

 

“In Color”

I said Grandpa what’s this picture here
It’s all black and white, and it ain’t real clear
Is that you there, he said yeah, I was eleven
And times were tough, back in thirty-five
That’s me and Uncle Joe just tryin’ to survive
A cotton farm, in the Great Depression
And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should’ve seen it in colorThis one here was taken overseas
In the middle of hell, in 1943
In the winter time, you can almost see my breath
That was my tail gunner ole’ Johnny McGee
He was a high school teacher from New Orleans
And he had my back, right through the day we leftIf it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should’ve seen it in colorA picture’s worth a thousand words
But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should’ve seen it in colorAnd this one is my favorite one
This is me and grandma in the summer sun
All dressed up, the day we said our vows
You can’t tell it here but it was hot that June
And that rose was red and her eyes were blue
And just look at that smile, I was so proud

That’s the story of my life
Right there in black and white

And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should’ve seen it in color

Yeah a picture’s worth a thousand words
But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should’ve seen it in color
(Should’ve seen it in color)

 

•••••

Coming soon…

You can get your copy of Warriors of the Wild Lands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans through my favorite trading post — Paulina Springs Books of Sisters, Oregon.

Comments

  2. I distinctly remember, as a toddler, asking my mother if things had the same colors in the “old days” as they did “now”(although “NOW” in this story has become the “old days” itself!)–as I was confused somewhat by the black-and-white-only photographs and films from those times. I remember my Ma laughing and laughing, and assuring me that yes, the colors in the “old days” were the same! To date myself even more here, I well remember my first camera–one of those old box-shaped ” brownie” types you held in front of you, and looked down through a viewfinder to frame the photo–only took black-and-white film, too. I got some good pics, though, with that old, klunky camera!

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  4. Great photos. The guys in the second photograph are making me a little nervous, though. Fingers out of the trigger guard, gentlemen!

    Reply

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