Artist Spends Over 3000 Hours Restoring And Colorizing Historical Photos

The project started with a desire to narrow the gap between what we see in historical photos and what we see in modern life.

Mario Unger is a photographer from Austria who has a rather interesting hobby. He takes old black-and-white pictures and makes them look new by adding color. Some of his subjects include actors and actresses from the silver screen to street scenes from hundreds of years ago. 3000 hours have been spent restoring and colorizing these historical photos.

The project started with a desire to narrow the gap between what we see in historical photos and what we see in modern life. “The reason for doing all of this work was to reduce the felt distance in time a little bit,” Unger explains. “I love to transport feelings from the past into the present day and that only works with ‘real’ colors.” Those colored renditions from the past reveal a closer depiction of what life was like during those days. There are also some highlights that we may have missed.

Unger uses Photoshop to transform those pictures into something brand-new. Rather than seeing monochrome images, we now see beautiful faces, colorful eyes, and wonderful fabrics. Some of the pictures he has transformed include the black and white image of Picasso and the first known female tattoo artist in the US.

More of his work can be seen below or on Instagram and his website.

Mario Unger is an Austrian digital artist who takes old black and white pictures and transforms them into color pictures.

Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet

Over 3,000 hours of hard work have gone into his collection of restored photos.

Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet

His subjects include a variety of historical figures.

Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
Photo: Mario Unger / MyModernMet
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