After photography came into vogue in the first half of the 19th century, many artists seriously feared that they would now lose their jobs - after all, the camera conveyed reality, landscapes and portraits in much more detail than any painter.

But it turned out exactly the opposite - deprived of the need to follow reality, the artists gave free rein to their imagination - and the second half of the 19th century became a real flowering of various artistic styles. This, by the way, is repeating itself with modern designers and their nightmares of losing their jobs due to the development of neural networks.

Interestingly, most of the vintage photographs that we review are actually almost always staged - even those that look completely casual. “The thing is, a hundred years ago it was literally impossible to take a picture on the street without drawing attention to yourself,” says Dmitry Kravtsov, a documentary and portrait photographer from Ukraine, who was approached by Bored Panda for comment.

"Remember what photographic equipment was more than a hundred years ago - a tripod, a cape for a photographer, a massive camera - of course, all this attracted the attention of people around," Dmitry comments. "So even if people were asked to ignore the photographer, they still tried to look more impressive, even unconsciously. And now we look at these photos, and think - hell, even ordinary people looked so stylish a hundred years ago!"

“As for classic staged or studio photographs, there’s nothing to say here. They prepared for the shooting in advance, put on the most beautiful outfits, took spectacular poses. Many photographers in their studios even had entire reference books - collections of beautiful poses, both for singles and for pair and group shots. And do not forget that an ordinary person, not rich or famous, took no more than ten photographs in their life - after all, they were expensive, really expensive," says Dmitry Kravtsov.

However, it was really worth it. And now, thanks to the fact that people were so fond of being captured on film a hundred or more years ago, we can open a real window into the past. So feel free to see how our ancestors lived, what they ate, what they were fond of and how they dressed - even if it was the most elegant clothes in their entire lives. Well, let's scroll to the very end of this collection and enjoy the pure spirit of history together!