B+W photos colorized by photographer Marco Réardon

Marco Réardon is a professional photographer from Montréal, Québec (Canada)

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Basilique de Quebec colorisée par Marco Réardon, photographe à Montréal, Québec

Photo noir et blanc de la Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville et de la Basilique colorisée par le photographe Marco Réardon. Sur cette photo prise vers 1880, on peut voir que chaque façade de magasin était ornée par des auvents. Selon l’historien Jean-Marie Lebel, ceci avait pour but de protéger les passants des intempéries en leur offrant la possibilité de faire du lèche-vitrine à leur guise.

Sur la gauche, le cinéma Empire, le restaurant Kerhulu et les magasin Simon’s et la bijouterie Birk’s. En haut à droite, la librairie Garneau, Holt Renfrew’s et la rue du Trésor.

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Gladys Cooper

Colorized and interprated black and white photo of British actress Gladys Cooper by Montréal photographer Marco Réardon.

The grand dame of English theater and a prolific screen actress, Gladys Cooper was one of the most revered performers of her generation. She began appearing as a photographic model as a child, and after her stage career began she became a popular pin-up postcard model for British troops during World War I. Her first film appearance was in the silent feature "The Eleventh Commandment" in 1913, but she continued acting on stage, earning notice for work in plays such as Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" in 1938 at the Open Air Theatre.

Français:

Photo noir et blanc de l'actrice britannique Gladys Cooper colorisée et modifiée par le photographe de Montréal Marco Réardon. Photographe original inconnu.

Dame Gladys Cooper est une actrice anglaise, née le 18 décembre 1888 à Lewisham (Royaume-Uni), morte le 17 novembre 1971 à Henley-on-Thames (Royaume-Uni). Elle vécut ses dernières années en Angleterre où elle meurt en 1971 d'une pneumonie à Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

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Colorization by photographer Marco Réardon of a b+w picture of actress Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie (1886-1962) made her name on the opening night of The Merry Widow, in London, on 8th June 1907. Overnight she had the town at her feet. On the stage Elsie seemed mysteriously beautiful with her perfect Grecian profile, enormous blue eyes, and hauntingly sad smile. Tall, cool, and lily-like, she moved with lyrical gestures in a slow-motion grace.

She was a true 'star' of Edwardian times, although the word was yet to be used in that context. Magazines produced special supplements about her, adverts featured her picture.

Although her fame and fortune came entirely from public appearances she was painfully shy. After just a few years on the stage she retired to a quite life away from the public eye. She did however leave us with hundreds of pictures, a few gramophone discs, and two films, to remember her by.

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Colorization par le photographe Marco Réardon d'une photo de Sarah Blanche Sweet, née le 18 juin 1896 à Chicago dans l'Illinois, et morte à New York le 6 septembre 1986. Elle est une actrice américaine du cinéma muet issue d’une famille de comédiens. Photographe original inconnu.

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Colorization of a black and white photo of actress Blanche Sweet (1896–1986).

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Born into a family of show people, Blanche Sweet first appeared on the stage when she was 18 months old. She was a dancer by the time she was four and a talented actress by 1909 when she started work at the Biograph with D.W. Griffith. By 1910, aged 14, she was four years younger than Mary Pickford, but her maturity and appearance soon lead to leading roles. She starred in such films as The Lonedale Operator (1911) and Judith of Bethulia (1914). Unlike most of the frail roles for women of her day, her presence was smart and resourceful. She left Biograph in 1914 and worked with Cecil B. DeMille in The Warrens of Virginia (1915). A popular and independent actress, she worked for many studio's and directors in the age of silent movies. Unknown original photographer.

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Newspaper Boys, 1915, Los Angeles. B+W photo Colorized by Marco Réardon, Montreal photographer.

Restauration and colorization by Montreal photographer Marco Réardon of a black and white photo taken in May 1915 by american photographer Lewis Wickes Hine.

Tough specimen of Los Angeles newsboys. Nine-year-old newsie and his seven-year-old brother named «Red».

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Les soeurs Gaudreau / Gaudreau Sisters, Stanbridge East, Québec, 1912

Stunning Black and white photo taken in 1912 of the Gaudreau sisters restaured and colorized by Montreal photographer Marco Réardon in March of 2021. Unknown original photographer. They lived in Stanbridge East, Québec, a few kilometers north of the US border.

I believe their startled looks may indeed have had to do with posing. Many cameras from that era required quite a long exposure. They likely would have been told to try not to blink; and the natural reaction when trying not to blink is to stare wide-eyed. You saw this a lot with portraits, esp. those old shots of Civil War soldiers and miners headed to the gold rush.

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Photographie de la famille de M. Adjutor de Montigny alignée sur le perron de leur demeure à l'Île d'orléans, Qc, en 1926. On y voit M. Adjutor de Montigny, son épouse, Éva Tailleur, et leurs douze enfants. Le couple s'est marié en septembre 1912.

L'île d'Orléans est riche d'histoire et de patrimoine. Plus de 325 familles d'origine française, qui compte aujourd'hui plus de 100 000 descendants répartis partout en Amérique du Nord, y ont élu domicile et défriché le sol au XVIIe siècle. Photographie originale noir et blanc (gélatino-bromure sur verre) d'Edgar Gariépy (1881-1956) colorisée par le photographe Marco Réardon en janvier 2021.

ENGLISH:

1926 photograph of Mr. Adjutor de Montigny’s family aligned on the porch of their home on Île d'orléans, Que. It shows Mr. Adjutor de Montigny, his wife, Éva Tailleur, and their twelve children. The couple married in September 1912.

Île d'Orléans is rich in history and heritage. More than 325 families of French origin, which today has more than 100,000 descendants throughout North America, made their home and cultivated the ground in the 17th century.

Original black and white (gelatin-bromide on glass) photograph by Edgar Gariépy (1881-1956) colorized by photographer Marco Réardon in january of 2021.

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Colorisation par le photographe Marco Réardon d'une photo noir-et-blanc d'un bus de la RATP dans une rue de Paris en 1952.

Le Renault TN 6 est certainement le bus parisien le plus célèbre. Autobus de 50 places à plate-forme arrière, moteur à essence 6 cylindres de 7,98 l., caisse en bois, il sort des ateliers de Billancourt à partir de 1932.

Il allait remplacer sur les lignes du réseau parisien les vieux Schneider et les tramways, en complément d’un modèle TN 4 moins puissant. Au total, 770 Renault TN 6 furent mis en service. « Réformés » en 1955, ils ne disparurent définitivement du paysage parisien qu’en février 1969: près de 40 ans de bons et loyaux services.

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Black and white photo of silent films actress Gloria Swanson colorized by photographer Marco Réardon. Original photo taken by photographer Alfred Cheney in 1922.

Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on going into show business. After her formal education in the Chicago school system and elsewhere, she began work in a department store as a salesclerk. In 1915, at the age of 18, she decided to go to a Chicago movie studio with an aunt to see how motion pictures were made. She was plucked out of the crowd, because of her beauty, to be included as a bit player in the film The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). In her next film, she was an extra also, when she appeared in At the End of a Perfect Day (1915). After another uncredited role, Gloria got a more substantial role in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). In 1916, she first appeared with future husband Wallace Beery. Once married, the two pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to the film colony of Hollywood.

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Leola N. King, First Female Traffic Cop, in 1918 in Washington, colorized by photographer Marco Reardon

Location: near the Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C., USA.

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Léola N. King en 1918, première femme policière de Washington aux États-Unis. Photo colorisée en octobre 2020 par Marco Réardon, photographe à Montréal.

Photoby: GHI/Universal History Archive

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Colorization and restauration of a black and white photo by photographer Marco Réardon of writer Agatha Christie taken in 1898 at the age of 8 with dolls. Unknown original photographer.

Agatha Christie was the best-selling mystery writer of all time. She wrote ninety-three books and seventeen plays, including the longest-running play of modern-day theater, The Mousetrap. She is the only mystery writer to have created two important detectives as characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.  

The daughter of an American father and a British mother, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born at Torquay in the United Kingdom on September 15, 1890. Her family was comfortable, although not wealthy. She was educated at home, with later studies in Paris, France. Christie taught herself to read at five years old. She grew up in a family environment full of stories—from the dramatic, suspenseful tales her mother told her at bedtime to her elder sister's frightening creations. She began creating her own fictions, too, with the help of her nanny, her dolls, and her pets. In 1914 she was married to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had one daughter.

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John Kennedy at the Age of 20 With Dachshund Teckel Dog

Colorization by photographer Marco Reardon of a black and white photo taken in Germany of John F. Kennedy.

In the summer of 1937, when the future president was 20, he took a three month trip to Europe. He is seen here in Germany where he had found a puppy dachshund (teckel, sausage) dog. He wanted to bring it back with him, but the border agents refused to let him cross with the doggie. John Kennedy had many, many dogs in his life.

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Colorization of 1950 black and white photo by photographer Marco Reardon of prams on front of bus with mothers.

Christchurch Transport Board (New Zeland) AEC Regal IV with either Crossley or Park Royal body (fleet number obscured by the prams). It was common practice to dangle prams, pushchairs and bicycles from the hangers on the front of a bus. The driver would get out of his seat and hook up the pram.

Opened: 21 September 1909 (electric tram); Closed: 5 February 1950 (electric tram); Opened: 6 February 1950 (diesel bus)

Services to Opawa commenced on 14 March 1907 using steam-hauled trams. Electric trams followed in 1909 and, despite an attempt to replace them with buses in the 1930s, remained in service for four decades. Bus services began with Sunday services from 10 April 1949 and concluded with complete bus replacement on 6 February 1950.

Two extensions of the Opawa route were established only months after the new bus service started: to Hillsborough, terminating at Grange Street from Opawa Road (13H); and to the Radley area (Woolston), terminating on Rutherford Street from Garlands Road (13R). Both of these changes, effective 28 August 1950, were intended to serve areas of new residential development as well as the industrial complex between Rutherford Street and Bamford Street.

A further extension of the Hillsborough service was implemented on 30 June 1969, terminating at Brabourne Road on Opawa Road.

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Colorization by Montreal hotographer Marco Réardon of a 1900 black and white photo taken by French photographer Eugène Atget of a PTT employee collecting mail in a Paris street. PTT stands for Poste, Telephone and Télegraphe, the french mail service.

Eugène Atget (1857–1927), born in  Libourne, near Bordeaux in France, is the pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. Most of his photographs were first published by Berenice Abbott after his death. Though he sold his work to artists and craftspeople, and became an inspiration for the surrealists, he did not live to see the wide acclaim his work would eventually receive.

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Eugène Atget (1857-1927) est l´un des premiers pionniers de la photographie. Ses compositions paisibles et esthétiques surpassent ses ambitions documentaires, exprimées avec modestie. Son vaste corpus d´environ 10 000 œuvres contient de nombreuses vues architecturales des rues, des monuments et des jardins de Paris ainsi que des sujets classiques comme des natures mortes, des nus et des paysages. Atget vendait ses photographies à des musées, des bibliothèques et des archives. Il utilisait un appareil boîtier ordinaire monté sur trépied et tirait ses négatifs sur albumine argentique. Vers la fin de sa vie, les Surréalistes se sont vivement intéressés à ses photographies, qui ont été publiées dans la Révolution surréaliste.

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Tribute to Quebec born photographer John Vachon.

1939 black and white photo colorized by Montreal photographer Marco Réardon.

Original picture taken in september 1939 by american photographer John Vachon in Sisseton, South Dakota, USA.

John Felix Vachon (May 19, 1914 – April 20, 1975) was an American photographer. He worked as a filing clerk for the Farm Security Administration before Roy Stryker recruited him to join a small group of photographers who were employed to publicize the conditions of the rural poor in America.

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Restauration and Colorization by Montreal photographer Marco Reardon of a 1860 photography of Two Albinos Sisters.

First exhibited in the 1860s, Barnum billed The Circassian Beauty as the purist example of the Caucasian race, brought to America from Circassia, located on the Black Sea. In reality they were beautiful young women made up to look exotic, usually by teasing their hair. They frequently were given a name containing the letter «Z».

The Circassian Woman could sometimes be seen performing with a large snake. The circus name of one of the two sisters on this picture was Aggie Zolutia

Original sepia photo courtesy of the collection of Steven Bolin.

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Restauration and colorization by Montreal photographer Marco Réardon of a picture taken in 1909 of a Coca-Cola delivery truck with two employees in Knoxville, Tennessee by an unknown photographer. The names of the employees are also unknown.

This is a circa 1909 photo of 2 men and a Coca Cola delivery truck, made by the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, the model name of the truck was «The Rapid».

The Rapid Motor Vehicle Company was founded in 1902 in Pontiac, Michigan, by brothers Max and Morris Grabowsky, who built their first pickup 1 ton truck prototype in 1900. They went on to build one-ton trucks and were the beginning of GMC Truck division after they were acquired by General Motors in 1909 in Detroit, Michigan.

Jon Neidert private collection.