In the US housing prices are still falling, the stock market is as bumpy as a dirt road and more difficult to navigate, a credit crisis is the big news everyday and the dollar has sunk below the Canadian Looney in value. (Gotta love a country that calls its dollar coin a Looney). A recession in the US looms say the soothsayers. So what does this all mean for Dreamstime and photography in general?
Want some good news? According to an issue of the New York Times last week the good news is that housing prices are falling, the stock market is bumpy, the Looney is worth more than the dollar and a US recession may already be upon the country. US financial woes are definitely good news for our neighbors: Canadians that live close to the US are swarming over the border and racing to outlet stores and Seattle malls daily as they trade loonies for dollars and US goods. Europeans are grabbing up goods in NY boutiques as if the end of shopping, as we know it, is upon the land. But don’t despair if you aren’t Canadian or a European tourist in the Big Apple, there is a positive side to all this for Dreamstime photographers, too.
Certain images become more popular in down times. When things are gloomy, demands for nostalgic and retro images become more popular. Advertising and design themes tend to turn their back on cutting edge and move back toward safer ground. Studies show that buyers feel safer with images that remind them of happy times: romanticized childhood icons and symbols of past eras even when that might have been only a decade or so ago.
When you are searching for ideas for images to evoke the ‘retro’ label, don’t go beyond the years when the oldest living members of the population were young. Once an era no longer has living members, the images that evoke that time period become ‘vintage’ rather than ‘retro’. Vintage clothing on the other hand is anything in my closet.
From my memory…err well I’m not all THAT old here are the first words that come to mind for each decade that still has a decent number of survivors.
1940’s Rosie the riveter. Shoulder pads in women’s dresses and big hair …so I’m told I don’t actually remember anything from this era. Should I?
1950’s TV hits the suburban living room and there is a car in every identical driveway
1960’s/early 70’s Marijuana, VW buses, hippies, long hair and Afros. Nehru jackets.
Late 1970’s Disco. Men that aren’t car mechanics wear jumpsuits.
1980’s Women’s dress for success suits with shoulder pads at home on a line backer and big hair. A portable computer larger than a large suitcase.
Early 1990’s. One of the most popular stock images was two guys toasting with Champaign glasses in the back of a limo. Desktop computers as big as the actual desk.
Here’s some places that offer quick tickets to a trip back in time:
Bad fads: here
More prop ideas here.
Retro wardrobe ideas:here.
