Interview with Marina Amaral of Brazil

By Maria Rochelle

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth on June 2, 1953

I’m so excited today to share with you an interview with Marina Amaral who specializes in photo colorization. She combines two of my favorite things: history and photography. She takes a black and white photo which has usually has some historic interest and puts her special touch and transforms the picture to color. She also goes in detail of who is in the picture and gives you some information on them. Read more about her in this interview.

How long have you’ve been restoring and colorizing black and white photos?

I started two years ago, in 2015.

What is the first one you ever did?

I think it was a portrait of a Confederate soldier of the American Civil War. Now I look at it and I think it’s terrible, but I felt really proud when I managed to finish it.

What do you love about colorizing black and white photos?

I love to look at a photo in color for the first time and feel that I’m giving myself and the viewer the opportunity to see that particular event or person in color for the first time ever. It’s almost a magical feeling.

With all your pictures,they all seem to be tied to history.I’ve enjoyed looking at many of them. I see them and I think “it’s now” instead of say 1925 when the actual photo was taken.How does it make you feel as an artist to show the photos in a different light which colors can do to any photograph and do you see yourself as an artist? I think you are and that you create beautiful magic with your skills.

Thank you! This practice of colorization of black and white photos involves lots of different things – research, historical knowledge, ability to use the software, but it also involves and requires an artistic sensibility, which is something that makes all the difference, in my opinion. I had never seen myself as an artist before, but now I realize that not everything depends on the technique. You need to have this sensibility to be able to look at the black and white photo and create in your mind the image that you want to reproduce. So when I look at the photo for the first time, I immediately begin to visualize the lightning, the atmosphere that I’d like to create, the details and the colors that I want to use.

Your first book “Colour of Time” which will which you collaborated with bestselling historian Dan Jones on. I actually read about you through Dan Jones’ twitter feed and became fascinated with your work through him. How did you and Dan come up with the idea and how did you decide to pick which photographs?

Dan and I met and he invited me to develop this project a little over a year ago. He already had the concept on his mind, which was something that I loved since the beginning. We are trying to tell a story not only through the texts, but also through the photographs. So they are not being randomly chosen.

What can the readers expect to see with the book?

We’re going to talk about the history of every nation of the world from 1850s to 1950s, which means that we are covering a hundred years of world history on this first book. We are talking not only about events that have taken place in Europe and the United States, but are also exploring facts that are little known but which are highly important in the history of places such as China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, etc. We have 200 exclusive colorized photos and Dan’s narrative anchoring each image in its chronological context. It’s a format that has never been explored before. We have high expectations, and hopefully, people will appreciate the effort that we’re putting on it. I can guarantee it will be a fantastic book!

Do you have a favorite period in history?

I love the medieval era.

Is there a photograph that you would like to restore and colorize that you haven’t had a chance to do?

I’d like to do something with the photographs of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in World War II, but unfortunately it is very hard to have access to them in high resolution.

Do you have a favorite one and if so why?

My favorite is the one of Czeslawa Kwoka, the young girl that was murdered in Auschwitz, for a number of reasons. I wanted to give her the chance to present herself, to “say” her name and to tell her story. Judging by the messages that I receive almost every day, I think I managed to do that and I feel very glad and proud of it.

Tell me three fun facts about you.

I can tell you three random facts about me.