Creative Mastermind for Week 11/11: Dana Keller

Welcome to the new week and Happy Veterans Day everyone! Today is special for The Creative Cabana because I wanted to bring forward a selective Creative Mastermind that also blended well with today being Veterans Day. I contemplated on a few artists whose graphic and artistic ability helped generate support for troops and objective goals in society. Then I thought that might be a bit cliched. So then I came across this article about a young man who is taking historic photos and putting them into color. Imagine what it would've been like to see history in the making in color through the eyes of the photographer. That is exactly what Dana Keller is trying to do.

Dana Keller, a graduate student at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, is studying to become a history archivist and has put his passion of photography and history into a whole new spectrum. His Facebook page entitled "History in Color", displays some of his examples of his colored photographs with icons such as Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Winston Churchill. In the article I read from Mashable titled "Enchanting Colorized Photos Breathe New Life Into History", Dana Keller explains his technique in adding color to these photos using Photoshop and other restoration functions as well. What is interesting about Keller's work is that he uses the colors to bring back familiarity to the photos. He notes that people detach themselves from Black and White photographs as if it were mere shadows of the past, color photos have a way of preservation and keeping the moment alive. The colors add familiarity to the photograph and brings people closer to the reality of what was occurring in the picture at the time it was taken.

"Edgar Allen Poe", Credit to Dana Keller

Keep in mind color photography was starting to be experimented with as early as the 1850s, but really didn't come to full development until the 1930s with the development of film known as Kodachrome. In 1963 Polaroid  produced "Instant Color Film" for cameras which became the "norm" of photography until around the late 1990s when Digital Photography became more popular and evolved with HD shooting. All this being said, we have so many conveniences of digital photography and color now that it's hard imagine seeing images today look as if they were taken during the Lincoln era or the Roaring Twenties. What Dana Keller has given us, is an opportunity to peek into history through the effects of color and photography to bring the reality of scenery and view with these classic images.

Ok, so now you know what Dana Keller does, now you ask what makes him a Creative Mastermind? Well basically his concept won this honor. He's not the first to use Colorization in photography. I've got pictures of some of my older relatives when they were in high school, and their senior portraits are in color. What's different about their portraits compared to mine is that theirs looks like drawings almost- Even though it was basically the photographs with color dye added to the product. So Dana Keller, is not the first to use this technique, but no one else has used original historic portraits to create color adaptations. Another thing I find about Dana Keller that is so ridiculously creative is his choice of color. No one really knows the exactly skin tone of Mr. Lincoln or Edgar Allen Poe, but his color choices suggest at least acceptable assumptions of how they might have looked during their living years. I'm not sure how much accuracy is a factor in Keller's work, but I think he makes fair judgement about the colors he picks when he looks at shades, time period, and subjects in the photograph. Imagination is key here, because sometimes when you don't have the exact facts available, you must rely on instincts to make the appropriate decisions. I feel that Dana Keller made good choices with his restoration of these images.

"The Hindenburg Disaster" Credit to Dana Keller

A little bit of history and appreciation for this week's Creative Mastermind in honor of Veterans Day and I do hope you've enjoyed it! If you know of someone or something that would make a great Creative Mastermind, please send your ideas to The Creative Cabana either by commenting on this post or visiting the Facebook page to leave your suggestions. Enjoy the rest of your day everyone, and be sure to thank a vet for their service and sacrifice!

*The original portraits of photographs used in this post belong to their respective owners. The colored versions of the photographs are owned and credited to Dana Keller. I do not own any of the photographic content mentioned in this blog post. Inspiration for this post came from the article "Enchanting Colorized Photos Breathe New Life Into History" on Mashable which I credit to the author for writing. No Copyright Infringement Intended.