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Awesome photos
Stoic Joker:
Fair point, but those rural farm folk were also much more active than we are today. If one was to use the bloated sloths in their hover chairs from the Disney movie Wall-E as the other end of the scale ... I'd say our current(ly) "advanced" society is on about the middle of that scale.
Darwin:
There is also the reality that before WWII, much of North America was rural - the majority of people lived in small towns and/or on farms. Post-WWII the North American economies BOOMED (well, Canada and the USA did - not sure about Mexico) and people en masse moved into the cities and away from hard manual labour. Instant, processed, and ready-made/pre-packaged foods were also developed as part of the war effort and started to appear in greater numbers on grocery store shelves after the war ended, fast food restaurants proliferated and many more women entered the work force, so there was more of a market for pre-packaged food. Overall, North Americans in general and Americans in particular have been the victims of their own economic and social success, with respect to the overall health of the population(s).
Another shift that has occurred as the industrialization of western economies in general has matured is one away from manufacturing (and manual labour) and production and toward service industries.
These are genearlizations, of course...
Deozaan:
What I find most interesting is how most people don't seem to care that there's a camera around. They don't look at the camera, they don't smile for the camera, they don't put on a pose for the camera.
It's a bit eerie, making some of them seem to go into the Uncanny Valley (for example, the child on the bed with her eyes open, or most of the folk at the dance).
When did smiling for a camera become the thing to do?
Darwin:
I think it may be that the pics were taken by a professional photographer who probably wanted to capture people "naturally" as opposed to standing in an awkward, stilted pose, grinning like an idiot!
Most of our family photos from the period feature smiles when the picture was taken by a family member/friend and serious looks when taken by a pro. The exception are photos of my grandfather - very dour!
zridling:
Great collection, indeed. Thanks for posting. I have neighbors in their 80s whom I talk to often and they're informative to say the least.
The Boston Globe also has great pictorials:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
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