Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

I thought this series of B&W photos of old gas stations from the 1920s was interesting. Fine detail and very nostalgic.







More of the photos from this series can be seen here:

http://www.shorpy.com/old-filling-stations

[David Salmanowitz]

Marc--For some reason these photos are not opening up on my screen. Went to the website and there are some great pics, love images from the past such as those. Those FSA photos have always been the cat's pajamas for me. Never had seen that website but it is right up my alley--thanks for posting!

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks David. I am not sure what went wrong. There seemed to have been some problem with the HTML linking code to the pictures. I have now copied them to another site and relinked them and they seem to be showing now in the post as they should be. Thanks again for pointing that out.

Anyway, yes, I do love some of these nostalgic images too. Often a lot of what you see from the early nineteen hundreds is very documentary style though and lacks artistic flair since photography in those days wasn't really accepted as an artistic medium yet until Alfred Stieglitz really started pushing the envelope. He went to great efforts to get photography accepted as an art form by promoting photographic art exhibitions and shows, and that movement of his happened right around the same time these images were shot.

Although he is not revered as one of the top masters of the 20th century, he has gotten good notoriety from his influential contribution as a promoter of photography as fine art.

[David Salmanowitz]

The photos are working fine now Marc.

I think even some of the documentary stuff even w/o the artistic flair can still be real good, as the subject matter can make the image come alive--a gorgeous old art deco neon movie theatre sign and building for example.

 I agree Stieglitz sure did push the envelope, and I have always thought some of his images were very good. Always have liked that one title The Steerage.   http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/33.43.419

[Khun Hans]

Great b/w street photography, Mark. Great details and sharpness.

[hoangcong]

The first image is beautiful