Thank you, Blondie for “One Way or Another“, but for now this is real. In the era of the coronavirus pandemic we are now in uncharted territory. A new normal if you will. In this lead photo supermarket shoppers are directed to follow the one way signs so as to minimize social contacts.
“One Way Shopping“; Patchogue, N. Y. (April 22, 2020)
A decorated soldier comes home. The Croix de Guerre is visible on his chest. For those unfamiliar with the decoration see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_Guerre. This was to be the War to End All Wars. See also our extensive military collection.
“Croix de Guerre“; North Little Rock, Arkansas (March 20, 1919).
DPI has an extensive collection of images related to coal mining and coal miners. This latest addition, “Coal Mine Town“; Appalachia c.1940 contains many of the elements of a typical coal mining town including the mine, steam shovel, railroad tracks and smokestacks in operation.
It has now been about five weeks since I have ventured outside my home. Retrieving the newspapers delivered on my front lawn, going to the mailbox and taking out the trash have been the extent of my movements outdoors. This morning I awoke to the sound of a lawnmower. Our lawn service has returned! I had not fertilized our lawn for fear that the service would not show up this year as they are based in one of the hardest hit areas of Long Island. Bienvenidos!
I was hospitalized twice in 2011 and once in 2018 when I underwent triple bypass heart surgery. If you have been reading our blogs you are already aware of my experiences. Without question I believe that our nurses have the most difficult of professions. When you are dealing with life and death situations from minute to minute nothing else compares. Having said that we are presenting our photo to you, “The Nurse“, c.1919. Taken in the time of an earlier pandemic about 100 years ago, the Spanish Flu. There are only a few people alive today who have lived through the Spanish Flu and the Coronavirus. Four generations later the more things change the more they stay the same.
Things could be worse as it was for this Texas farm family during the Great Depression. We feel extremely fortunate to be able to bring this photo to you as we pay homage to the work of the great Farm Security Administration photographers of the period such as Dorothea Lange. For us at DPI this was a no brainer.
Never again! Absence of toleration ultimately leads to genocide. Toleration is the basic principle which guides us here at DPI. If you come away with nothing else from viewing our images learn this lesson. Presented here is a view of the main entrance gate to Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria (May 1945). Sign reads “Juden Verboten”, translation “Jews Forbidden”. Small print states the edict of April 1938 enforcing this policy.
“Antisemitism“; Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria (May 1945)
DPI has a substantial collection of farm photographs. This recently acquired image, “American Farm“; U. S. c.1920 is somewhat unusual especially for the period. In the first place you are viewing roughly a 100 year old image. Note the windmill protruding from behind the roof of the main house. What caught our eye is the low angle of view at which the image was shot coupled with the wide angle image created by the camera lens. This wide angle shot is not typical for the period. As you can see the edges of the image are somewhat out of focus. They are soft. This is common for camera lenses of this period. But even today wide angle lenses suffer from barrel and pincushion distortions which are even more evident in zoom lenses. The more things change the more they stay the same.