Related by Marriage: Colorized

This photo is the only one in our stash that has been colorized. Before color photography came on the scene, it was common to have images of important events hand tinted, or "colorized."

Chicago, Illinois, 1947. This is Aunt Agnes on the occasion of her second marriage. Agnes was the cousin of Mr. Irene's maternal Grandmother, Anna. Agnes played a big role in the lives of Mr. Irene and his Parents because she financed the mortgage for Mr. Irene's childhood home. Agnes was widowed two or three times.

Composite

Until recently, my family had seen no photographs in which my paternal Grandparents, Tatjana and Vytautas, appear together. In the early 1960s, my paternal Aunt Jonė—Dad's twin sister—commissioned a photography studio to merge individual portraits of Tatjana and Vytautas into one composite. The photographer used this image and this one.

The studio also colorized the image, and Jonė's daughter—my Toronto Cousin—reports Jonė was not happy with the result. Jonė apparently thought that the image made it appear Tatjana was wearing a lot of makeup; that's something Tatjana never did. I also think Jonė may have disliked the colorization because it gave Vytautas red hair.

A piece of curved glass covers the composite; that makes the faces (Vytautas's especially) appear more rounded than they are in the original photos.
 
Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for bringing the framed image during her recent visit so I could see it and photograph it.

Related by Marriage: Another Look

Camp Irwin, Barstow, California, September 1, 1951. To date, I've only posted one colorized photo. Recently we came across this one of Mr. Irene's Dad. It may look familiar because I earlier posted the original version. Mr. Irene's Dad gave this portrait to Uncle D and Uncle D's wife, Danutė.