An Austrian Artist Spends 3,000 Hours Breathing New Life Into Photos of Historic Faces and Events

At one time or another, we all probably wondered about what it would be like to live during various historical events. Maybe some of us would have liked the opportunity to meet some of the famous people of the past like Charlie Chaplin or Dizzy Gillespie. But in a way, now we can! Mario Unger, an Austrian photographer and digital artist, spent thousands of hours giving new life to old black and white photographs by colorizing them.

We at BrightSide were really amazed to see how the past could be so vibrant, so we wanted to share some other amazing work from the artist with you.

1. Ella Fitzgerald in 1946, photography by William P. Gottlieb

2. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, 1953

3. Charlie Chaplin, The Pilgrim, 1923

4. Antonio Ascari and Ugo Sivocci in an Alfa Romeo at the Targa Florio, 1922

5. A powerhouse mechanic working on a steam pump, photography by Lewis Hine, 1920

6. Left to right: Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charley Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg, 1937

7. Dizzy Gillespie, New York, 1947

8. New York, Mulberry Street, CA, 1900

9. Oscar Wilde, CA, 1880

10. Weishaar, Winner of the 100-mile race, Norton, Kansas, October 22, 1914

11. Taking the Christmas tree home, Chelsea, London, 1914

12. Jack Brabham, Dutch Grand Prix, 1966

13. Portrait of Louis Armstrong, sometime between 1938 and 1948, photography by William Paul Gottlieb

14. East Side, New York City, Jewish Market, 1895

15. 2 NASA engineers testing a scale model of a Saturn I rocket in a wind tunnel in the 1960s

16. Tattooed woman, CA, 1905

Which of these lively photos made you feel like you were right there in that moment in history?