Old-time photography, also known as antique and amusement photography, is a genre of novelty photography.
Old-time photography allows consumers to pose as if for an antique photo in costumes and props from a particular period, sometimes printed in sepia tone to give the photo a vintage look.
Popular themes include the Old West, the Victorian era, or the Roaring Twenties.
Some studios specialize in the genre, and others ply their trade at festivals and historical reenactment events. It is a popular family activity at amusement parks and other tourist destinations, mostly in the United States. Many of these old-time photography studios are located in historic cities that naturally draw visitors looking to experience how people lived in past eras. Some photo booths will do sepia toned prints for a similar look.
Photographers in the genre originally used specialized Agfa and later Polaroid equipment, but have largely moved to digital photography along with the industry.
Famous quotes containing the words old-time and/or photography:
“Then, like an old-time orator
Impressively he rose;
I make the most of all that comes
And the least of all that goes.”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)
“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)