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Marina Amaral

1 Jun, 10 tweets, 4 min read

Colorized by me: this is a mugshot of Margaretha Zelle. You may not recognize her, but I'm pretty sure you know who she is. Margaretha was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I.

She was best known as Mata Hari.

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. She was put on trial on 24 July, accused of spying for Germany.

Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her. Supposedly, secret ink was found in her room, which was incriminating evidence in that period.

She contended that it was part of her makeup.

Zelle was executed by a firing squad of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on 15 October 1917.

She was 41.

According to an eyewitness account by British reporter Henry Wales, she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.

Despite her having admitted under interrogation to taking money to work as a German spy, many people still believe she was innocent because the French Army needed a scapegoat. bit.ly/3fCsjCE

Her execution merited a scant four paragraphs inside The New York Times, which called her "a woman of great attractiveness and with a romantic history."
bit.ly/2RYs6k8

A harlot? Yes, but a traitoress, never!
— Phrase attributed to Mata Hari during the trial.

"I have encountered in this world riff-raff and good people. I lose. I win. I defend myself when I am attacked. I take when someone has taken from me. But I beg you to believe me; I have never done an act of espionage against France. Never. Never."

More colorized photos in my books: marinamaral.com/books/

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1) I'm very keen to spend some time with production companies, museums, institutions, to explain the colorization process, the ethics, the research, why it is so powerful, and guide them on how to better take advantage of it.

I think it's time to have an open conversation and...

2) ... explain to people why this goes beyond "throwing colors around" and using gimmicky apps.

This won't be a "tutorial". I just want to establish a communication line and have a serious conversation about everything that's involved in the process.

3) As someone who has been doing this for a living for 6 years, I think I can help to shed some light.

This won't be a paid thing - I'm just sick of seeing so much misinformation being spread after the recent Vice incident.

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