Tag: Jan Grenci

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress include thousands of photochroms. These early color prints were photomechanically reproduced so they weren’t photographs in the traditional sense. I spent some time looking through the photochroms, most of which date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while working on a Flickr album of images of mirrors and reflections. Neither a color photograph nor a hand colored image, a photochrom was made by combining the photographic process with the lithographic process. A black-and-white negative was transferred to a lithographic stone or plate. Each color of the photochrom required a separate stone. If the photochrom included four colors, four stones were needed to make the finished…

This week, we’re looking at something I don’t like very much – fruitcake. This seasonal sweet treat has never appealed to me. But while preparing for a recent Flickr album featuring images of butter and baking, I stumbled upon three fruitcake photos that caught my eye and deserved detailed views. First up, a Russell Lee photograph taken in San Angelo, Texas for the Farm Security Administration. Removing fruit cakes from tin in which they were baked at bakery in San Angelo, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b23652 In the photo, fruitcakes are removed from their baking tins. My eye was led to a detail in the upper left corner of the image. An object hangs on the wall and…

Anthony Angel, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front. Photo by Angelo Rizzuto, between 1949 and 1967. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.70820 Earlier this year, the Anthony Angel Collection became available for research. The collection contains around 60,000 black-and-white photographs of New York City, chiefly Manhattan, taken between 1949 and 1967. Angel was born Angelo A. Rizzuto (1906-1967) and listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as Angelino Rizzuto, as Tony Rizzuto in 1920, and as Angelo A. Rizzuto in 1930 and 1940. When Rizzuto bequeathed his work to the Library in 1967 he wanted it to be known as The Anthony Angel Collection, with Anthony Angel being an “Americanization” of Angelo Antonio. Settling in New York City after growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, Angel spent many years…