The following collection of hand-colored photographs of 1950s majorettes are awash not only with paint but nostalgia. Although color film called Kodachrome became available in 1935, it was very expensive. Thus, many portrait studio photographers continued to offer hand-tinting services throughout the early 1970s.

I love the vivid hues in each photograph and how the colors elevate the iconic status of each majorette.

“Colored photographs occupy an undeservedly questionable situation: the artist curls his lips at them, and the photographer regards them with a sneer. The one says they are no painting, the other that they are no photograph; thus the art of photographic coloring, unrecognized by either, must seek consolation in the fact that it is embraced none the less eagerly by both.” –1859 Instruction Manual (Source)