My Photo Postcard Era: 1990-2005

The picture postcard has been around since 1897 in America. I collected my first cards on a family vacation to the MidWest during the summer of 1966.  Some time in the latter part of the 1970s my twin brother introduced me to antique postcards via a visit to a postcard show at an old hotel in Pasadena. I bought one old card,  which I still have.  A decade later I was attending local postcard and vintage paper shows on a semi regular schedule. Being a photographer I had made black and white postcards beginning about 1974 using Kodak postcard paper which had a divided back and the word P O S T C A R D  printed across the top portion of the card.  But in 1990 I had the bright idea that I could make cards in the darkroom without the Kodak paper cutting my own double weight paper to size and stamping the reverse side with a custom made stamp. I also employed a method to print captions on to the sensitized side of the card using lithographic film.  It was fun while it lasted. The last cards I printed in the darkroom were done about 2005, or when digital photographer finally persuaded me to leave the chemical behind.

Here is a very random sampling. Part 1 :

Thanks for visiting!  Jim Staub