MORLEY’S FIVE STAR WORKSHOP
Stone-age photo-shop?
I have been following the debate about red motors in EJ Holdens and I have studied the picture on page 94 of issue 426 of Unique Cars and it looks very much that the picture of the red motor itself is an illustration. Yet it appears to be that the EJ picture of the vehicle is actually a photograph. The battery, chain, lifting tool, manifold, carby and motor etc look more like the work of an illustrator. The cowl, steering wheel and what is visible of the driver’s door looks far more like a photograph. An early example of “photo-shopping”?
I would be interested in your thoughts if you feel my observations have merit and what this might mean in the ongoing debate.
Ian Doust, Email.
morley says...
HMMM, YOU could quite well be right about this, Ian. I thought the whole thing was a hand-drawn illustration, but maybe Holden did, in fact, merge a drawing with a photograph to come up with the illustration in question. Certainly, hand-finishing (mainly colouring) photographs was a common practice back in the 1950s and 60s before colour photography was as accessible as it eventually became.
The other factor that supports your theory is that, back then, companies like Holden had distinct departments to take care of different roles. There wasn’t always a lot of cross-over between two departments, either, sometimes based on the old class system that was still a part of Aussie life back then. For instance, an old mate of mine who knew him, once told me that the late, great Australian engineer Phil Irving identified himself to new acquaintances as a member of the drawing-room team, rather than just the engineering department generally. He probably wasn’t being a snob, that’s just how it was back then.
So it’s quite possible that whoever produced the illustration we’re talking about, was
