According to Tom Marshall, a professional photo colouriser: “n the mid-1870s, Scottish photographer John Thomson captured the daily toil and struggle of the ‘street folks’ of London, in a series of photos that laid the foundations for modern photojournalism. Working with a radical journalist called Adolphe Smith, Thomson produced a monthly magazine ‘Street Life in London’ from 1876 to 1877.

The photographs Thomson took depict real life in London, showing the poorest of the poor and how they managed to survive, in scenes that could have been written by Charles Dickens. Smith would interview the subjects of the photos, often preserving the unique dialects and expressions of a world now long forgotten, and the photos lent authenticity to his text. Thomson and Smith published their photos and interviews in a book in 1878 from which the following images were taken.

I believe that colourizing images can allow a modern audience to engage better with the subject, especially in an age where we see thousands of images on a news feed every day. Colour brings out hidden details, which are often lost in black and white, and it causes the viewer to pause and look. This is not to say that the original images are not fascinating in their own right, but I believe that the addition of colour helps to enhance the scene and forces the viewer to spend more time looking into it and reading the accompanying caption.”

“There are, undoubtedly, many most honest, hard-working, and in every sense worthy men, who hold licenses from the Watermen’s Company, or from the Thames Conservancy. That these men are rough and but poorly educated is a natural consequence of their calling. Never stationary in anyone place, it is difficult for them to secure education for their children, and regular attendance at school would be impossible unless the child left its parents altogether. Continue reading »