Why are there so many weird postcards that show the 'same sky' even though they should have been taken around the world?
Postcards with pictures of famous places printed on the back are often seen as souvenirs in tourist spots. However, a collector's man living in Canada discovered a lot of 'strange postcards with the same sky in the background despite the pictures of different places', and a movie approaching the mystery It is open to the public.
James Browner, who lives in British Columbia, Canada, is a collector of records, photographs, old picture frames and much more.
One of the items that Mr. Browner collects is 'postcards'. Mr. Brower pays attention to the composition of the postcard photos and collects postcards with similar compositions at once.
At one point, Mr. Browner discovered that there were a group of postcards with 'strange commonalities' that he didn't even realize. This is the box that contains such a postcard. 'SAME SKY (same sky)' is written on the side.
When I line up the postcards in the box ...
A strange commonality emerges.
The scenery and buildings in the foreground are different, but the 'same sky' is reflected in the background.
Although the shooting locations are different, such as
Mr. Brower said that he saw this cloud and associated it with an elongated snake-like monster.
The shape of the clouds is the same, but where they appear in the background varies from photo to photo. Sometimes it shifts to the left or right, sticks out to the top of the photo, or flips.
In addition to the sky with snake-like clouds, multiple skies are appearing repeatedly on postcards.
For example, you can see clouds shaped like Cuba in a certain sky.
Mr. Brower publishes the collected postcards on Flickr, an image sharing site, and a large number of postcards showing the same sky can be seen on the page named 'Same Sky Postcards'.
Same Sky Postcards | Flickr
The postcards that Mr. Brower collects are called 'Chrome era Postcards' that were released from the late 1940s to the present day.
The name comes from
Postcards from the chrome era are characterized by the use of color photographs with unique luster and punchy hues, and were widely distributed, especially from the 1940s to the 1970s.
After investigating the postcards collected by Mr. Brower, it was found that all the postcards showing 'the same sky' were manufactured by a manufacturer called 'DEXTER PRESS'.
DEXTER PRESS was one of the world's largest postcard makers in the Chrome era and was based in New York.
According to the postcard description, DEXTER PRESS printed 4 million postcards a day at peak times, and the process of printing postcards based on color photographs is called 'Natural Color'. He was a pioneer.
It's almost certain that DEXTER PRESS has replaced the background of the photo with 'same sky' for some reason. As for the reason, there are theories that DEXTER PRESS thought that 'this sky attracts customers' eyes' and 'a signature substitute that indicates that it is a postcard made by DEXTER PRESS'.
Mr. Brower speculated that 'DEXTER PRESS thought that reusing the same sky in the background was a way to leave a visual signature.'
However, Bill Burton, the publisher of
Burton pointed out that DEXTER PRESS had its own artist department and provided 'a service to fix problems with images that you want to postcards.'
For example, suppose for some reason the sky in your photo isn't what your customers want.
In this case, the DEXTER PRESS team cuts out only the buildings and people in the foreground ...
It was said that only the background was replaced with the stock image on hand.
Burton argued that the result of replacing the background in this way would be 'a large number of postcards with the same sky in the background.'
It is rare for people to bother to buy multiple postcards at a store and check them against the sky in the background.
Therefore, until the appearance of an enthusiastic collector like Mr. Browner, it is probable that the reuse of the 'same sky' performed by DEXTER PRESS was not clear until today.
As a collector, Mr. Brower was influenced by 'a work of art that repeats the same pattern.'
It's a work of art that repeats the same pattern created by
Browwer said that lining up postcards using the 'same sky' creates a strange meaning and is more than just a postcard.
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