D-Day Plus One in Colour

Memory is a funny thing. We manufacture our memories as much as we recollect them, though I swear all of my memories are 100% accurate. Collective memory is an even stranger beast, as certain aspects of our past simply slip away and other aspects are emphasized out of all proportion. How we remember things can also seem awfully arbitrary.

Example: when people think World War II they remember it in black and white.  Black and white equals old, and a time far distant from our own. But really World War II wasn't that long ago, and of course it wasn't lived in black and white. I think most people looking at these colour images taken around D-Day would place them at a much later date. Everyone looks awfully modern.

I've had the opposite feeling when looking at 1980's concert footage of bands like Rush and The Clash, which will almost always be in black and white. That's only because at that time there was no colour stock fast enough to shoot in a dark auditorium but the effect makes the footage look ancient.

Follow the link at NPR for even more stunners from Life's site.