What year is this? #5: answer

Thank you for posting such great responses.

In particular, thank you to Phil Beard, Joel and Erik, who very precisely identified the picture and its date. I appreciate your patience.

Your comments were divided almost equally between those who thought this was a photograph of models, taken recently, and those who thought it was a genuine picture from the 1930s / 1940s.

Highlight the space below to find out what Phil, Joel and Erik already knew:

September 1939, in Minneapolis, Minn. The picture was featured recently on the historic photo blog Shorpy, and Phil Beard explains why it looks uncannily like a model:

“It’s an FSA photo by John Vachon. He had a passion for leaning out of high windows in search of that Constructivist angle on the world.”

and as Ashley pointed out:

“The camera has a “tilt” lens, which can do strange things with the focus plane. Tilting camera lenses were much more common prior to the 1950’s.

…..

Thank you very much to Shorpy.

Related posts:

  1. Children, 1905
  2. What year is this? #2: answer
  3. What year is this? #3: answer
  4. What year is this? #4: answer
  5. What year is this? #4

3 comments to What year is this? #5: answer

  • Llywarch

    Doh! I’m regular [at] http://www.shorpy.com/ and I had a nagging feeling I’d seen the photo before.

    Looking forward to the next ‘Can you date….’!!

  • jufjo

    Ah yes that makes sense.
    The Wheeler truck looked too modern for me to be 1930s but of course I was looking at it with European eyes.
    It often happens that pre war American photos look more modern then pre war European photos.

  • Chris Samuel

    Cool, very happy to be wrong on that one, excellent photo!

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