Throwback Thursday...

Throwback Thursday

Take a look at this.  This is my high school graduation portrait.  Back in the day, they were taken in black and white.  They were printed in the yearbook in black and white.  Finally, they were distributed to the family and friends in glorious black and white!

Contrary to popular belief, color film existed,  but I guess it just hadn't become the trend to take graduation portraits in color in the mid 1970s.  

Continued browsing of my parents' fortune revealed this hand-painted version of the same portrait...most likely included in the package of black and white prints.  I have vague memories of collaborating with the photographer, not with the use of his camera, but with deciding what color my eyes, hair, and clothing were.  It was a phone conversation, not a face-to-face observation.  If he was told brown hair with blond highlights and blue eyes and a red jacket, this is what he painted.  I don't remember the jacket being red, but it was the 1970s and anything was possible!  I'll bet the pants were bell-bottoms with turned up cuffs, and the shoes had two and a half inch heels!.  

So, kids, before there was Photo-shop or one of those programs where you could create a frightening comic book character of yourself, there was a brush and some paint.  It didn't have the distinguished effect of some of today's creative photography, but it did provide a few gasps and blurts of 'What?', and it does provide some good entertainment on this Throwback Thursday!