The thriller of the “similar sky” postcards

#thriller #sky #postcards

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2021-10-06 08:00:22

An obsessive collector seen one factor uncommon in his 11,000 postcards.

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James Brouwer has been accumulating postcards for larger than 30 years. His assortment numbers over 11,000; photos of outdated age properties, ugly consuming locations, and Nineteen Sixties selling are neatly organized in bins in his Canadian residence. Nonetheless James started to notice that just a few of his postcards — dozens, the reality is — appeared to have the exact same sky. Wanting even nearer, he seen that the same-sky postcards had been all made by one author: Dexter Press out of West Nyack, New York.

Dexter Press was as quickly as certainly one of many largest publishers of “chrome-era postcards,” — postcards produced from color photos that turned widespread inside the Nineteen Forties. By the purpose James started accumulating inside the Eighties, “chrome taking part in playing cards” had been principally ignored by collectors, and should very properly be bought for affordable in flea markets. It wasn’t until he appeared through quite a few these taking part in playing cards that he seen the similar sky repeating itself.

Darkroom producer Coleman Lowndes took a go to to British Columbia, Canada, to see James’s assortment for himself — and to help resolve the thriller of these an similar skies. To James though, the thriller doesn’t truly matter. The rationale the skies look the similar is far much less essential to him than the weird seen impression it produces when all these skies come collectively.

Darkroom is a historic previous and pictures assortment that anchors each episode spherical a single image. Analyzing what the {photograph} reveals (or doesn’t current) provides context that helps unravel a wider story. Watch earlier episodes proper right here:

Uncover James’s full postcard assortment on-line proper right here:

Bill Burton’s on-line journal Postcard Historic previous:

Be taught up on Dexter Press and all points postcard on MetroPostcard:

Distinctive Dexter Press postcards at Queen of Chrome’s eBay retailer:

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