Time Traveling Hipster

About

The Time Traveling Hipster refers to a mysterious man photographed in 1940 wearing what seems to be modern-day clothing and carrying a camera. Similar to the Pink Shirt Guy, the man in the photograph gained much notoriety for his surprisingly modern fashion style.

Origin

While the identities of photographer and subjects depicted in the image are unknown, the location and year was noted on the back of the photograph: “Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood in Nov. 1940. 1941 (?)”^[1] The image belongs to the virtual collection of the Bralorne Pioneer Museum^[2] in British Columbia, Canada.

The photograph was made available for public viewing to museum visitors in 2004 and presented as part of the exhibit Bralorne-Pioneer: Their Past Lives Here.^[3] The exhibit was digitized for public consumption in February 2010.

Spread

The image was posted to Fark^[4] and AboveTop Secret^[5] on March 22nd, 2010, but did not gain much attention until it was posted on Forgetomori^[1] on April 15th, 2010. The article argued against the widespread assumption that the photograph was fake and supported its authenticity with artifacts originating from the same era, such as a pair of sunglasses worn in the 1944 film Double Indemnity. It has also been speculated that the logo on his shirt is a collegiate-style letter "M" – the logo of the Montreal Maroons hockey team, active in the NHL from 1924-1938.^[11]

On April 16th, 2010 the image was posted to BoingBoing^[6] and was posted on Gizmodo^[7] the next day. On May 5th, 2010, news of the "time traveling hipster" reached FreeWilliamsburg^[10], Brooklyn's hipster-centric culture guide.

Alternate Angle Shot

On April 20th, 2010, Forgetomori posted an update^[8] with another picture found in the John Wihksne Collection^[9] with the note "Opening of the new bridge at South Fork (1940)." Taken from a different angle, the young man still remains visible in the photograph.

Authenticity Proven

In December 2010, Evgeni Balamutenko and his colleague from NTV in Russia located the original photograph and with the help of a museum staff member, it was determined that the photograph was real.

External References