"Negro drinking at 'Colored' water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma" ca. July 1939
A student from Rhode Island has painstakingly transformed iconic black and white photographs from the 20th century into modern day works of art.
Jared Enos is an 18-year-old artist who, from the comfort of his bedroom, breathes new life into snapshots from our recent past.
In his bio, he says, “My goal is to create a more tangible connection with the past through the colorization of historical photos,” and one can’t help but look at his portraits and feel that very connection he speaks of.
The Talented Lady Day
From a young man drinking at a “colored” fountain in Oklahoma to U.S soldiers huddled by a tank during World War II, Enos has found a way to make what’s usually found in dusty history history books, visually compelling — and therefore more accessible to his generation.
This is no small feat, considering the teen didn’t have much of an interest in art prior to starting this project.
Check out some stunning samples from his collection below.
Jackie Robinson 1954
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Who Was Knighted In 1899
Newsies picking up their papers from the St. Louis Times news agent. 1910.
December 1942. “Armed guard at a copper smelter of the Phelps-Dodge Mining Company at Morenci, Arizona.
High school Victory Corps. The fireman’s “carry.” Flushing High School, Queens, New York. October, 1942.
Glimpse of the past: Two American soldiers shelter behind their tank on December 11, 1944, in Geich, near Dren, Germany
Getting around in South Mississippi, July, 1936
The Talented Lady Day
A crowd gathers in Times Square celebrating with a newspaper announcing the surrender of Germany, 1945.
An Ojibwe Native American spearfishing, Minnesota, 1908.
President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young, and James Farmer
An American medic tends to a seriously injured German soldier who appears unconscious or dead, Normandy, Saint-Lo, June 1944.
Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the American South, escorted by U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower for her safety. 14 November, 1960
The Lovell Family Viewing the Apollo 13 mission
Sarah Vaughan, “one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century” Circa 1946
Times Square, D-Day, 1944.
Summer on the Lower East Side, 1937
A breeches buoy is put into service to transfer from a U.S. destroyer to a cruiser survivors of a ship, November 14, 1942
“Negro drinking at ‘Colored’ water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma” ca. July 1939
African Americans collect the remains of soldiers killed in battle near Cold Harbor, Virginia, in April of 1865.
