Crazy Colour Photoshoot

Continuing along with some of the postcards so colourful as to be blinding...

I love this set for combining the look of having been coloured with highlighters with the look of detailed stenciling on the woman's dress, and I love the way the lack of tinting on the woman's face, legs, and hands and the entirety of the man gives them a surreal sense of unreality, like they are bright pink ghosts. I love the really long stems on the flowers that stick out oddly in almost every picture. I love how they are all sent from the same man to his fiancee on the 20th, 21st, and 24th of July (1929), and I love how he always notes the time he wrote (this is not uncommon in the period, but I always love it). I love how all the messages cut off mid-sentence-- he must have continued on in a longer letter or on other cards. I just love this set. 

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personal collection

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On this one, I also love how the tinting of the dress extends past the actual hemline of her dress!

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Bonne Année

In France, it has traditionally been more common to send New Year's cards than Christmas ones (although some of the New Year's ones use Christmas imagery, so two birds with one stone!). Our romantic fantasy postcards were often put to this purpose, with many messages and/or printed greetings wishing bonne année, happy new year.

Bonne Année à tout le monde!

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personal collection

I love how the person writing this had difficulty figuring out what year it was. 

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personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

Crazy Colour

Exceptionally bright colours are one of the main characteristics of these cards (with occasional exceptions), but some of them go above and beyond, to the point of nearly blinding you with a variety of garish hues (I say that fondly, of course!). The most extreme are usually toned in bright pink or purple, with extensive tinting, The effect is even more pronounced when the photographs are taken outdoors, with the colours turning the scene into a surreal dreamscape. They're almost overwhelmingly kitschy-- and just terrific. 

Joyeux Noel

Postcards for the season! Merry Christmas! 

Moi et Toi

Very few things in the collecting of these postcards make me happier than the discovery that not only was a card sent from one lover to another, but he or she has gone and labelled the people on the card with their names! Awww....

I have a number of the ones Willy sent to Aline-- every single one he labelled with their names!

(in the upper right corner-- "10 000000 big kisses"!)