Black and White WTF
November 2, 2009 10:08 AM   Subscribe

 
You do realize that 7 year old was denied healthcare.

I'm curious as to how that car crash was taken. Weird that someone would have photographed it but it also doesn't look Photoshopped (edited).
posted by stormpooper at 10:19 AM on November 2, 2009


Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Marion Davies grafted together into a single super-vixen?

The vo-de-oh-doe readings are off the charts!
posted by Joe Beese at 10:21 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


I want a yodeling meter!

I love how serious her expression is (on the left). Yodeling is serious business.
posted by rottytooth at 10:28 AM on November 2, 2009


I love that one from Coney Island! If that's them having the 'time of their lives' I'd hate to see them on a bad day.
Also, the car crash?!
posted by Flashman at 10:34 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]


I disagree with the "doesn't looked photoshopped". Why are only the car and the man blurry? There's some debris flying off the front, but nothing from what it just supposedly ran over/past. And where did that guy come from? Neither standing by the side of the road nor being inside the car would put him there. Maybe hanging onto the top?
posted by DU at 10:40 AM on November 2, 2009


Why are only the car and the man blurry?

Because they are moving?
posted by designbot at 10:47 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


Yodeling is serious business.

Truer words were never spoken.
posted by incster at 10:48 AM on November 2, 2009


Maybe because they're the only things moving? Still, I am skeptical too. It looks too crazy to be true, or too crazy not to have become a famous, iconic image.
posted by Flashman at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2009


This is neat!
posted by shinyshiny at 10:50 AM on November 2, 2009


And for one dollar, you get to punch the one in the middle.
posted by digsrus at 10:52 AM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]


Beautiful!

KKKKarnival! Good times!
posted by HTuttle at 10:53 AM on November 2, 2009


Regardless of the truth, I'm just going to assume this is a long lost picture of a young Hunter S. Thompson.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:00 AM on November 2, 2009 [4 favorites]


Scary old guy on trike carrying scythe? WTF?
posted by fixedgear at 11:01 AM on November 2, 2009


Regardless of the truth, I'm just going to assume this is a long lost picture of a young Hunter S. Thompson.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:00 AM on November 2 [+] [!]


Ah yes, the fabulous 50s (assuming), where every child wasn't a man unless he had a shotgun and some lead paint chips off of the crib to chew on. Salad days, indeed.
posted by stormpooper at 11:13 AM on November 2, 2009


This image reminded me disturbingly of this one.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:19 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


Weird that someone would have photographed it but it also doesn't look Photoshopped (edited).

It could certainly have been edited. Some people did incredible editing in those days, though a lot of it was as lazy as the worst PhotoChopping of today.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:38 AM on November 2, 2009


That was pretty fascinating. The caption for this is "Fraternity Initiation Ceremony, c. 1920."

I think that caption would work for the majority of these photos.
posted by marxchivist at 11:47 AM on November 2, 2009


stormpooper: "Weird that someone would have photographed it but it also doesn't look Photoshopped (edited)."

Of course there was much trick photography and manipulation, some of it quite subtle, before Photoshop brought it to the masses. It's sort of a lost art at this point, but you could fake a photo like the car crash one using several different negatives and some crafty dodging and burning; sort of the analog equivalent of Photoshop's "rubber stamp" tool.

I've known people who were good enough at that technique to swap around people's faces in group photos. (Only works if everyone is wearing similar clothing and the faces are the only distinguishable feature.)

Given that it's not a famous image, at least not to my knowledge, I'm going to vote for fake of some sort.

It reminds me of this much more modern car-crash image, which I'm similarly convinced is a fake (or more likely a still from a drivers-ed film) because it's just too spectacular an image to be unknown if it's real. It would be Pulitzer-worthy if it was actually what it appears to be.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:48 AM on November 2, 2009


this one is pretty neat, this one is kind of more wtf?
posted by localhuman at 11:58 AM on November 2, 2009


Stalin's men were very good at 'removing' troublesome people in photos, usually after being 'removed' from the world of the living.
posted by chambers at 11:59 AM on November 2, 2009


That flying man looks painted in to me. I wonder what the pre-photoshop version of the expression "totally 'shopped" was?
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:12 PM on November 2, 2009


The more I think about it, the less likely the physics of that flying man are. First, he has been ejected entirely from the car. I mean, the car is presumably moving slightly up and to the right, and he is being flung at an extreme angle from both. That means that the car must have been moving at that angle when something forcibly stopped it, causing him to contrinue on his trajectory. I don't see what precisely stopped the car -- indeed, the car does not appear to have been stopped or slowed at all, and neither do I see what might have stopped it, unless that car hit one hell of a bump. Also, how did he emerge from the car? Through the window? Hard to believe. Is the opposite door flung open? At the angle the car is at, I think we would we the stop of the car door.

Fucking Snopes. GO BACK IN TIME, WOULD YOU?
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:45 PM on November 2, 2009


My limited darkroom experience leads me to believe that the flying guy would've been relatively easy to fake with old-timey techniques. He's an almost-all-black object against a mostly-white background, so you could just trim him out of whatever photo he was originally in, stack the negatives, and make a print. I'm not saying it definitely is faked, just that it wouldn't have been too hard (assuming you have separate pictures of a car crashing and a guy in the middle of the air).
posted by echo target at 1:03 PM on November 2, 2009


Here, you guys might like this. Always something interesting!
posted by John of Michigan at 1:14 PM on November 2, 2009 [3 favorites]


I'm sure most are edited but these are really great to look at! Thx for sharing!
posted by swilson at 1:35 PM on November 2, 2009


As a fan of several of the vintage photo posters at Flickr (from whom this blogger finds many of his images), I had already seen, faved (there's that word!) and/or commented on a lot of the pics here. Even for Flickrheads like me, though, it's great that someone with a good eye for the odd and bizarre has put together a selection for easy viewing all under one roof. And of course, there's non-Flickr stuff, too. Very entertaining blog, bookmarked! Thanks for the post, grumblebee.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:22 PM on November 2, 2009


Yodeling is serious business
Sex and violence and rock and roll
Yodeling is serious business
Sex and violence and rock and roll
posted by bwg at 4:35 PM on November 2, 2009


You suck at Photoshop.
posted by bwg at 4:46 PM on November 2, 2009


Scary old guy on trike carrying scythe? WTF?

That was the "Old Year" going out and the "New Year" coming in -- a ubiquitous visual trope of the time. And let me say that while there are many sites with found fotos on the net, this one is the undisputed king. The women with the bloody mattress, the swastika sweater girls (obviously pre-Hitler), the coarse, coarse humor... Good grief, our ancestors were as twisted as we are.
posted by Faze at 4:57 PM on November 2, 2009


Thanks, Faze. I thought it was old man and baby for New Year, but yeah.
posted by fixedgear at 6:26 PM on November 2, 2009


Building on Astro Z's analysis of the trajectories, I think I've cracked the car crash one.
Clearly this was one of the daring pioneers of 'ghost riding the whip.'
posted by Flashman at 6:57 PM on November 2, 2009


Good god almighty! This thing is going to murder me in my sleep tonight.
posted by NoMich at 8:04 PM on November 2, 2009


halloween masks were way scarier when people made them themselves out of papier maché.

also: this should be a new pro gay marriage advertisement.
posted by RedEmma at 7:41 AM on November 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


This image reminded me disturbingly of this one.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:19 AM on November 2 [2 favorites has favorites +] [!]

Ogre, can you NSFW the second link?
posted by stormpooper at 10:02 AM on November 3, 2009


Ogre--nevermind, wrong person. Sorry.
posted by stormpooper at 10:03 AM on November 3, 2009


I LOVE old photos and postcards. Thanks for posting this. I have a huge collection of photos and cards and I keep adding more. I find all kinds of neat things in antique stores. I could scan enough material to fill this blog for several years. :)
posted by Eclipsante at 1:01 PM on November 3, 2009


I received some Flickr mail, concerning this blog. Read for yourself:

"I'm writing because I happened to see a comment you made on someone's Tumblr site, Black and WTF. I just wanted to let you know that he used my photos (and many others) without permission. He has created a site by using photos that were hand picked and paid for by serious collectors. I don't find that creative. The hard part of finding them has already been done by the original owner. I don't think the guy deserves kudos for taking what isn't his."

So, although he's included a "via" link on many (though certainly not all) of the pix, using people's photos without asking their permission is very bad form, IMO. Anyone who agrees might want to reconsider their support of and attention to this blog.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:41 AM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]


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