Imagine a world without photographs. There’s so much we might never have “seen”. Thanks to the invention and evolution of the camera, we have pieces of the past frozen in time. We are able to “experience” places we’ve never been. And we can share parts of our lives with strangers, in an instant.
Nowadays, almost anyone can be a photographer. An amateur one anyway. And you don’t even need to carry a camera or professional equipment. A mobile phone with photographic capabilities will do just fine. But it wasn’t always that way.
A group of highly talented photographers came before us, paving the way as they played with light around them. Facebook page History Photos Sealed In Time is a gorgeous gallery of “historical and vintage photos from around the world”. Bored Panda has put together a list of our favorites. Keep scrolling for a captivating journey through the days of darkrooms and daylight color film. And learn a bit more about the days before digital photography.
#1 Tricycle Gang In Brooklyn. New York City (1930s)
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#2 A Danish Zookeeper Waters The Emperor Penguins On A Hot Summer Day In 1957
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#3 Man In Fog, London – 1935 Photo By Arthur Tanner
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#4 Girls Playing Jump Rope, Chicago, 1950 – By Marvin E. Newman
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#5 A Heavy Load – Sioux. Edward S. Curtis, 1908
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#6 Farm Life Of Western Norway – 1890s
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#7 Christmas In London – 1948
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#8 Racecourse On Norderney Island Four Ladies In White Dresses On The Turf, Germany, 1908 – By Otto Haeckel
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#9 The Face Of The Custom House Clock In Boston Was Repainted By A Worker In 1976
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#10 In Amsterdam, Holland, In 1953, A Milkman Was Seen Peddling His Dairy Products, Providing Fresh Milk And Other Essentials To The Community
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#11 Man With Bird, Tyneside, England, Ca. 1937 – By Edith Tudor Hart
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#12 Photo By Russell Lee – New Madrid County, Missouri. Child Of Sharecropper Cultivating A Field – 1938
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#13 In Whitechapel, London, A Young Person’s Eyes Wander Longingly Over The Freshly Baked Goods In A Bakery Window During The Financial Hardships Of The 1930s
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#14 Ladies Sharing An Umbrella, London, 1959
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#15 L’uomo Che Corre. Paris, Photo By Sabine Weiss, 1953
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#16 Passengers In Railway Station, Germany, 1940’s – By Paul Wolff
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#17 A Bench From Out Of Youth, 1970 – By Andrei Knyazev
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#18 Laugharne, Wales, Photo By Philip Jones Griffiths, 1959
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#19 Experienced Ticker Tape Operators Diligently Working On The New York Stock Exchange In 1915, Ensuring Precise Monitoring Of Market Activity
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#20 Chorus Girls Reading On The Set Of You Can’t Have Everything, 1937
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#21 “The Camera Is An Instrument That Teaches People How To See Without A Camera” – Dorothea Lange
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#22 Photo By Cecil Beaton – Tilly Losch (1930’s)
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#23 Women Factory Workers In A Cotton Mill In Lancashire, England, Circa 1908
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#24 Rhine River Boat Transporting Whisky, Düsseldorf, Ca. 1957 – By Leonard Freed
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#25 Farmer Walking In Dust Storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma Circa 1936
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#26 Little Sarakatsana Spins Wool, 1940’s – By Takis Tloupas
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#27 The Great Flood Of 1910 In Paris, France
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#28 Photo By Leonard Freed – Farm Women, Bay Of Naples, Italy 1958
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#29 Mailbox Attached To A German Tram, Postman Empties The Mailbox. Berlin, 1920
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#30 Carrer De Les Basses De Sant Pere, Barcelona, 1946 – By Otho Lloyd
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#31 Unemployed Miner Returning Home From Jarrow, England, 1937 – By Bill Brandt
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#32 Rue Mouffetard, Paris, Ca. 1945 – By Brassaï
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#33 Liverpool, Photo By By Paul Trevor, 1975
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#34 Teachers Training Students Of The Royal Dance Academy At Fairfield Lodge In 1949
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#35 Paris, 1952 – By Édouard Boubat
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#36 A Sears Roebuck Catalogue Assembly Line In 1942
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#37 Quai Du Louvre, Paris, Photo By Marcel Bovis, 1946
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#38 A Lady Sold Hot Chestnuts In Soho, In The West End Of London, England, In 1935
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#39 The Sonter Family Packing Fruit, Ray Road, Epping, Sydney – 1911 By Rex Hazlewood
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#40 Photo By Gianni Berengo Gardin, 1953
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#41 Nuns, Rio De Janeiro, 1955 – By Ormond Gigli
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#42 Alla Nazimova And Rudolph Valentino In Camille – 1921
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#43 Girls Picking Huckleberries – 1920s
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#44 In 1940, Factory Workers In London, England, Produced Spectacles Compatible With Gas Masks
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#45 New Year’s Eve In The Vondelpark, Opposite The Entrance To Van Eeghenstraat, Amsterdam, 1951 – By Ben Van Meerendonk
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#46 Hooverville (Great Depression), Ca. 1936
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#47 San Nicola Da Crissa, Italy, 1950
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#48 Photo By Jean Hermanson – Vietnam, 1973
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#49 Standing In Line. Photo By Robert Doisneau, France, 1940s
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
#50 Curling In Central Park, New York City – 1906
Image source: History Photos Sealed in Time
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