Isn’t this a great picture? When people ask me about the research I do for my novels, I list the usual history books, scholarly articles, biographies, autobiographies, and novels written in the Twenties, and then I talk about how much I learn from watching silent movies made in the mid-1920s (ones that tell a contemporary story) and photographs. Here’s a perfect example. I use this one to help me accurately describe street scenes in the mid-1920s. I think it’s New York, and conditions were not so dire in other, smaller cities, but still . . . it gives you a sense of the time. Who knew gridlock has been around for so long!
Advertisements
I use all the sources you mentioned for my ressearchs, but pictures and films are my favourite by far.
I think this is because they are the closer to first-hand impression we can come to. Written form is always madiated by the writer. And yes, of course I know pics and films are mediations too, but you can still ‘see’ the subject and have a chance to make up your own mind about it, even if the pic or film is suggesting something different.
I learned things from films and pictures I didn’t learn anywhere else.