On 8/7/06, Fastfission <fastfission(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Looks like a lithograph or some related process
-- adds a hazy, drawn
quality to photographs. Very common way of processing photos for
reprinting in news sources amongst countries with less developed
printing presses. The Soviet Union used this extensively throughout
the 1950s; I don't know if it was ever very popular in the United
States, and certainly hasn't been used there much in the 20th century.
At least, this is what I recall reading somewhere, a long time ago,
cobbled together with my own experience with old newspapers. I might
be wrong many points, but it resembles a lot of the Soviet-era
photographs I have seen, at the very least.
Ah, so you start with a photo, then trace around the broad shapes by
hand, to reproduce by printing press? Makes sense. You end up with a
sharper image, but less actual detail.
(Cough!) Um, I dont think that was the case in that case. At all.
Hence I now make an ironic point of my finger to the title I gave
this thread. ;)
The Soviet process of photo retouching strived for realism, or at least
what passed for convincingness in contemporary totalitarian society. There
are some good books on the subject. It was used mostly used to erase people from
history, or at least in official photographs of historical people: 'Comrade Bukharin?
I
dont remember any "Bukharin." You have "photos," you say? Hrmph!'
-SV
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