Obsessing about the past as I am wont to do, I’m always looking for any “color” I can add to those lives, stories (and musical instruments) to help bring that world to life. My friend Matt Redman feels the same way, and so some time ago did an experiment with some new software to (literally!) add color to some of my B&W Harpguitars.net images. Some of them got close to a sense of realism, which I further tweaked manually in Photoshop. Such as this one. The incredible 1890s cabinet card of the Chris Knutsen family (courtesy of Gary Wright) – once monochrome – has been given a whole new life! I have now used it for my original Knutsen Archives home page, which I just updated (with an added note about now being a hundred instruments behind to add to the site!)
We also colorized my favorite vaudeville team with their rare Knutsens:
Vardon, Perry & Wilber, colorful even in black and white, really stand out here! Their story is told here.
