What the Empire State Building Looked Like Against the Background of Other, 1941
Year: 1941Era: WWII Era
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What The Empire State Building Looked Like Against The Background Of Other Buildings, 1941. Made in 1941, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.
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The first half of the 1940s was consumed by the Second World War, the largest conflict in human history, and photography went to war with it — small 35mm cameras and wire services meant pictures from the front could reach newspaper readers within days.
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Most photography of the period chased celebrities and headlines, which makes surviving images of daily routine all the more precious. This is what the world actually looked like when nobody thought it was worth remembering.
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