Eras

Films and photographs from a certain time have a certain appearance, such that it's possible to guess quite accurately when the film or photo dates from. In addition to the obvious signs like clothes and hair styles, there is the issue of image recording technology. Cameras and films from a certain era have a subtle uniqueness. It changes with time. Technology changes, the image changes. Sharpness and clarity may improve and they may actually deteriorate.

For example, black and white films of the fifties and sixties have a sharpness that's lacking in color films made just a few years later. When color arrived in the late sixties and became widespread in the 70's it appeared wonderful at the time, but its softness and tonal bias look less than accurate to our eyes today. But it had a special visual quality we now appreciate, for example in the early promotional films of the Beatles. The popularity of the soft focus filter in the 70's also added to the look of the time. In the eighties the onset of video technology and the increasing possibilities of video editing gave an exciting new televisual feel to the decade which was taken up by pop acts and film makers.

Music influences our visual perception giving it a time-limited quality and texture, whether the sound track to a film or the music that forms the background to our lives. Replaying music can conjure up visual impressions of a certain time.

Cameras and films of 150 years ago gave a certain look to the Victorian world, to our eyes a rather stilted one due to the long exposure times. The faster films of 100 years ago brought greater spontaneity to still photos and made moving images possible. Film and photo techniques of the 1930's seemed ground-breaking at the time and today can appear to have a kind of retro-modernity.