About 10 years ago, he learned that you can colorize old photos.
He was spending time with a friend scrolling the web when he stumbled upon an interesting artist.
"I discovered this old woman's photographs that were hand-colored with oil that she had printed out, and it absolutely mesmerized and captivated me," he said.
"I spent the entire day going through her entire online archive, meticulously cataloging everything this lady had done, sorting it all out into folders, periods, and years," Madsen added. "When I was done and looking over my new collection, I thought, 'Hey, I should try this myself.'"
Madsen has been colorizing old photos ever since.
Now, colorizing photos is Madsen's full-time job.
He's famous on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram for his colorful takes on black-and-white images and has created books and shows for the History Channel with his work.
"I started doing this just for myself and posting it on Reddit for critique, and I never expected it to blow up like this," he said.
Madsen said it can sometimes take days or weeks to colorize one photo.
"A portrait can take a couple of hours, but an outdoor shot can be literal days, if not weeks, of chipping away slowly but surely," he said of his process.
Pinpointing which colors to use on a photo can be challenging but rewarding.
His work requires close attention to the details of each image.
"Sometimes trying to nail down the color of a single ribbon or medal requires hours pouring through an online gallery," Madsen said.
For instance, it was time-consuming for Madsen to pick colors for the details on this photo of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
"I spent a long time on the ribbon rows," he said of the image, which is one his favorites he has ever colorized.
Madsen had to accurately color each medal on Aldrin's chest, which took hours.
"Fun fact about that image: He's wearing a Mickey Mouse watch," he said of the Apollo 11 astronaut's portrait.
"I mostly pick it on whether or not I think their eyes will look good," Madsen said of how he selects classic photos to colorize.
"I've always had a fascination with really beautiful eyes, and that's how I pick most of my photographs," he said.
For instance, Katharine Hepburn's eyes sparkle in this photo.
"If you look through my gallery, most of the [subjects] will have steely-blue or sky-blue eyes, and they'll hopefully be framed beautifully by the surrounding color, contrasting it really nicely," he said.
Other times, he feels compelled to colorize an image because of the original nature of the photo.
"If something is really crisp or has a special quality to it, I'll jump right on it," he said.
Celebrities and historical figures feature prominently in his work.
Madsen said the most difficult part of his job is the research he has to do for every image.
Madsen wants his photos to be historically accurate, so it can be time-consuming to find out what colors would have really existed in a certain image.
"Sometimes I'll have placeholder colors that are really bright — I've had generals in pink uniforms until I figured out which color uniform he was wearing — so I can easily figure out what I need to finish editing once the color has been laid down," he said.
"I can easily spend days researching everything to get the foliage right, including the season and location of an outdoor shot," Madsen said.
Not only did Madsen have to accurately portray the greenery, but he also had to ensure he was using historically accurate colors for the soldiers' uniforms and gear.
"If you imagine a field of flowers and trees, every branch, stalk, stem, leaf, flower, whatever, it all has to be colored in by hand, and it all has to be realistic," Madsen said. "I have to shade it to the appropriate environment and the atmospheric light has to look right, too — otherwise it'll look flat."
Madsen told Insider that he finds his work calming.
"It's a stress-free kind of work environment where I can just space out and not really do anything," he said. "I can have a movie or a TV show on, I can discover new music, or just sit in absolute silence, just enjoying it."
His work helps bring history to life.
"It makes it real," he said. "It makes it a lot easier to approach, and it makes it feel alive."
For instance, this famous photo of Anne Frank takes on new meaning with the additions of color.
The color allows him to better connect with historical events.
"I feel I can connect with the stories and the events and really imagine myself in their shoes or in that situation when I see the photographs in color, compared to black-and-white photos, which can feel kind of alien and disconnected," he said.
The color in this photo allows the viewer to imagine how Charlie Chaplin's mustache must have felt in Helen Keller's hand.
For instance, a candid moment between Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill stands out with Madsen's color additions.
In this photo, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill stand together in Livadia Palace during the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
The color allows the viewer to see Stalin's laughing expression, as well as Churchill's cigar in his hand.
Madsen created video tutorials with HistoryColored to teach others how to colorize photos.
Madsen collaborated with HistoryColored on a series of tutorial videos on YouTube in 2020.
"I originally made a tutorial back in 2012, and it wasn't really that good," he told Insider. "I had rushed into it trying to capitalize on all the people asking me to produce a tutorial, and I figured now was a good time to update it."
"I know HistoryColored, who runs a pretty big Instagram profile, and he asked if I was willing to make a tutorial in collaboration with him, and me having already thought about it, it was a no-brainer," he added.
Madsen said that learning how to colorize takes time.
"Watch my tutorial, get a feel for how Photoshop works, develop a working process so every image is a breeze, and just practice," he said, advising people who want to learn how to colorize images.
"Practice on a true color photograph by desaturating it, then coloring it and comparing it to the original and seeing where you may be off — that's what I did," he said.
"If you're going to try to colorize, do it for yourself, and not for the people watching or viewing your work," Madsen added. "You'll burn out."
"Do it for the love of history."
You can find more of Madsen's work on Instagram here.
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