Archive for the ‘Historic Photos’ Category

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“Who Shot Rock and Roll” Photo Exhibit

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

The Annenberg Space for Photography, located in Century City, CA, is going to host an exhibit aptly titled, Who Shot Rock and Roll. The exhibit will focus on images of rock and roll celebrities in a timeframe ranging from 1966-1990. This is a traveling exhibit and is the only showing in the western coast of The United States.

The exhibit will feature 166 prints from a barrage of different iconic, rock and roll photographers, namely: Roberta Bayley, Jill Furanovsky, Ed Colver, Guy Webster, and many more. There will also be a slideshow created by Henry Diltz that showcases 80 different images and is set to a fitting rock soundtrack. There will be multiple short music videos interspersed throughout the exhibit, including clips of Elvis Presley performing “Heartbreak Hotel” and Sonic Youth’s Death Valley’69. In addition to the prints and slideshow, there will be a short documentary film that is produced specifically for the Annenberg showing. The film will be shown in crispy 4K resolution on two different 14’ by 7’ screens and will feature multiple interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The film was shot on location in The United Kingdom, Los Angeles, and New York. The recording artists will feature the likes of Henry Rollins and Alice Cooper, as well as Gary Burden the Grammy-winning cover designer. This photographic exhibit was originally shown in The Brooklyn Museum.

KCRW, an acclaimed Los Angeles public radio station, has formed a partnership with The Annenberg Space, and created a series of free concerts during the summer in honor of the Who Shot Rock and Roll photo exhibit. Artists such as Beck and Portugal The Man will be featured in the series, and the only prerequisite to attending them is to RSVP on the following website: http://www.kcrw.com/events/who-shot-rock-roll

Who Shot Rock and Roll will run from June 23-October 7, 2012 and will be located at The Annenberg Space for Photography at 200 Avenue of The Stars, Los Angeles CA 90067.


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Digital Scanning Nathan’s Hotdog Competition Photos

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

Digital Scanning Has Not Preserved Many Photos of the Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest Held Every July Fourth. However, Modern Photos Abound for This Popular Celebration.

Nathan’s Hotdogs has hosted its annual Fourth of July hotdog eating contest for 96 years, and on July 4th, 2012, it will proudly host number 97. But while there are countless photos of recent years with headline-grabbing competitors like Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, very few photos from contests before 2000 seem to have survived. Either nobody took them, or more likely they were never preserved with digital scanning. However, digital conversion has given us a window into the history of the famous Coney Island hotdog shop that has slowly climbed from its humble beginnings to become a famous international chain delivering unhealthy hotdogs and delicious fake cheese to eager eaters everywhere.

The story, which those who first popularized it have since discredited as a fabrication, claims the hotdog eating competition began with an argument about patriotism. Supposedly, in 1916 the anniversary of the country’s founding led four new immigrants standing outside Nathan’s original frankfurter stand on Coney Island to begin boasting about who was more patriotic. The story goes that Nathan proposed the competition as a way to settle the argument, which he then held every year thereafter, as crowds and popularity increased. It moved around some over the years, even being held once under the Brooklyn Bridge. However, it’s been at the same Coney Island site since the 1970s and the scene there remains one of immense crowds and hot, happy chaos to this day.

Photographs of this slightly gross competition, which has drawn almost two million television viewers in recent years, stir something faintly patriotic in onlookers. Even though we know that hotdogs are unhealthy, and consuming over 60 of them in a row is even more so, competitive eating of one of America’s few “American” foods – even one we borrowed from Europe like so many others – just feels right on the Fourth of July. Attending the slightly claustrophobic competition itself or just watching it before going out for the day, we’re given an experience that fits perfectly with the contemporary nature of how we celebrate the country’s founding: food, friends, and being outdoors.

Old photos of Nathan’s hotdog shop, preserved with digital scanning, contribute to the feeling that this competition fits so well on the Fourth. The stand is something of an icon for New York, and as a nearly century-old fixture of Coney Island, it holds an important place in popular imagination. A lot has happened on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenue, from famous scenes in the movie The Warriors to Chestnut reclaiming the belt for the United States just a few years ago, to countless other New York moments. It’s like the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day, only somehow even more patriotic and symbolic.

So it’s somewhat unfortunate that digital scanning has not been able to provide us with many photos of this event from our history. But as long as people keep barbequing in the afternoon and watching the Nathan’s contest on TV in the mornings, and as long as the now immensely-wealthy company continues to be profitable, the event will remain a part of our yearly celebrations, as well as a great way to kick off the day no matter what else you have planned.

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Helping Families in Colorado

Friday, June 29th, 2012

Colorado Wildfires Motivates Memory Preservation Efforts

ScanDigital’s Campaign to Support Those Impacted By The Wildfires

Today, we are launching our nationwide campaign aimed towards assisting Colorado residents affected by the recent wildfires.  With over 30,000 people evacuated, and more than 300 homes already destroyed by the fires, this tragedy has become a national focus.  The magnitude of the event coupled with ScanDigital’s personal connection to Colorado compelled us to do something to help the impacted communities.


Image is from Chicago Tribune websiteAll of the members of our management team have a connection with Colorado, and collectively the company feels a sense of urgency to help.  Rich Wender, Director of Human Resources says, “Colorado was my home for close to a decade. With so much to offer, Colorado has contributed to some of my fondest memories, such as hiking up my first fourteener (Mt. Princeton), cruising class five rapids on the Colorado River, and catching many Rockies games. I hope to one day call Colorado home again.”  The Chief Operating Officer, Matthew Stone feels that the “years spent in Colorado were some of the most memorable of my life. From receiving a world-class education to enjoying its natural beauty and culture, it remains one of my most favorite places in the world.”  ScanDigital’s management retreats are held every year in Colorado and the beautiful area holds a special place in our hearts.  Anderson Schoenrock, the Company’s founder has family members in Colorado Springs that have been impacted by the wildfires and grew up spending time in the state.  “I’ve been watching the coverage anxiously hoping that my relatives in the area would not need to evacuate.  Having spent at least some portion of every year of my life in Colorado, the area is a special place for me and my family.”

 

We specialize in protecting family memories and preserving them for future generations.  It is only fitting that our campaign helps these Colorado families protect the memories they still have.  For residents impacted by the wildfires, we are offering to digitally convert and protect their photos, home movies, and other analog family moments that were rescued from their homes at half price.  ScanDigital will also help to restore these images that may have been damaged in the fires.  Additionally, we will also store the digital images on our servers as backup and store the original materials in our secure warehouse until each family has found time to regroup after the wildfires.  Carrying boxes of photos and movies that span generations can be exhausting and ScanDigital will alleviate this burden by protecting and giving them a temporary home.

 

For the people who aren’t affected by the fires, but want to make a difference, ScanDigital is offering a 10% discount on its services and on top of the discount will donate 10% of revenue generated to the Red Cross’ efforts in Colorado.  In order to receive the discount and help the wildfire victims, customers should use the code HELPCOLORADO when placing an order online.  We hope to raise enough money to make a noticeable impact in the recovery efforts while continuing to do what we do best: Help families preserve their precious memories.

 

If you lived in the affected areas and need help preserving your memories, contact ScanDigital (888.333.2808 or info@scandigital.com) to receive the half off discount.

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Posted in Colorado wildfires, Historic Photos, Photo Scanning, ScanDigital, photos | No Comments »

World War 2 Images Protected by Digital Photo Scanning

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Digital Photo Scanning Has Preserved Thousands of WWII Photos

and Let Several Governments Host Them in Online Photo Archives,

Including All of the Most Famous Shots.

World War II was one of the most horrific conflicts humanity has witnessed. Photography was already advanced enough to be very portable in the 1940s, and had become an important part of governments’ propaganda engines as well as a valuable documentary tool. Digital photo scanning has allowed many governments to preserve and archive copies and originals of thousands of these photos. Some of these digitally preserved WWII photos that are incredibly famous. Whether these photos enjoyed instant fame from the moment the world first saw them or they have grown in esteem over time, World War Two photos remain to be extremely valuable. These are the kinds of photos that help us understand the gravity of the events the world experienced in the middle of the 20th Century.

There are a handful of select photos from World War Two that are so powerful that they somewhat outshine the rest. For instance, there is a portrait of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill taken in 1941, the infamous shot of U.S. soldiers making shore at Omaha Beach on D-Day, the image of the flag raising at Iwo Jima in 1945, and the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square after the close of the war are all images that nearly anybody will recognize. It’s an indisputable fact that these photos deserve the amount of fame they have received. Each of the aforementioned photos captures a moment with so much emotional connotation, that they remain relevant even in contemporary times.

Take the controversial Iwo Jima flag raising, which some contend was staged, or the Navy sailor kissing a nurse he’d never met. Each of these photos captures a triumphant, emotionally charged moment. We can almost imagine struggling up a hill, trying to maintain enough cover to avoid Japanese snipers that remained hidden on the island after the U.S. retook Iwo Jima, all to be sure the flag at the top was big enough to proclaim a hard-fought victory. After brutal weeks in the Pacific, the entire world was ready for the war in the ocean theater to be over. When this picture came back to the Associated Press, they immediately recognized that it crystallized this feeling. The sailor dipping a nurse back in Times Square suggests the country’s and the world’s joy at the end of the worst conflict it had ever seen. As with many of these shots, the photographer didn’t immediately realize what he had, but it was difficult to escape the powerful dynamism of the shot once the roll was reviewed.

On the other hand, many photos have come to fame over time, as people studying the war latched onto them because of the connection to the horrors of the 1940s they depict. These are the ones for which we owe the most to digital photo scanning, as they would have been lost had they not been reproduced and recognized for their power over time. The clearest example of this is the photo, Jewish Boy Raising His Hands in the Warsaw Ghetto, from 1943. We see entire families looking terrified as they walk hands up, in front of German soldiers with rifles. Similarly, the picture of the Frenchman crying from June 1940 tugs at the heartstrings. He cries over the decimation of French pride and the French army by the Nazis. And we see a different side of the French than people typically discuss, of a moment in the war when they still thought to forestall Hitler on their own.

Digital photo scanning has done an admirable job of ensuring that these incredible, famous, moving photos won’t be lost. Our children will be able to learn about the war that shaped the 20th Century from these photos. And we will continue to remember things, moments many of us are far too young to have experienced, all thanks to some powerful photographic insight.

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Posted in Historic Photos, Photo Scanning, digital photography | 1 Comment »

Digital Scanning and Incredible Civil War Photos

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Digital scanning is often used to preserve historic documents and photos. This is most important when physical records from history are scarce and susceptible to damage from human handling, and when the information in the records is particularly valuable. Pieces from the U.S. Civil War fall into this category, and scanning photos, manuscripts, newspapers, drawings, and prints is a high priority for historians and the U.S. government. And many U.S. Civil War photos are still in individuals’ possession, waiting to be rediscovered in attics and old family albums.


The U.S. Civil War, which started in 1861, was the first major war to be covered by extensive photography, as the technology was still very young at that time. This meant that when the young photographer Matthew Brady, who owned a photo studio and gallery in New York City, sent his corps of photographers out to the field with new, unwieldy cameras and crews, the images they captured and sent back to the North’s major cities had a shocking impact. Never before had the harsh realities of war been made so garishly clear to the average citizen. Prior to the invention of photography, artists would visit battlefields after the fact, if at all, and create drawings to be converting into etched plates. Those would then be used to include the images, which often glorified battle and lacked any accurate depiction of reality, in circulars and newspapers. But photographs, although they couldn’t be printed in newspapers at this time, were presented in public art galleries and offered a far more honest and accurate depictoin. For this historical value alone, Civil War photos are very important.

The war itself remains a very personal and intimate part of many families’ identity and history. Along with photographers, both the Northern and Southern armies and governments employed artists, writers, and printmakers for strategic and propaganda purposes. Along with personal letters and other objects, these records and individual memories of the war have stored and passed down in scrap books and albums for generations. They are often among families’ most prized possessions. But just as with Civil War photos and other physical records that the government and national historical archives maintained control of, these personal holdings represent an important part of our country’s record and our heritage.


Preserving them with digital scanning to make them available to scholars and historians without risking damage to the originals has become a major goal for interested agencies. Whether they call for owners to convert their Civil War photos and documents with digital scanning, ask them to bring the valuable historical documents to a special location for professional conversion, or just coordinate digital scanning days for rare or unique Civil War documents, these efforts are speeding up the process of digital conversion that would hopefully mean time will not rob future generations of these incredible historical records.

Although many of us think of using digital scanning to preserve our own photos or to convert massive historical archives, the nature of how people collected and own rare and unique Civil War documents and photos means that scanning is the only way to collect them in one place, online. As efforts continue, it will mean more people have easier access to a wider array of photos and other primary documents, which can prove moving even for those of us without a longstanding interest in this formative event in our country’s history.

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