Thursday 25 August 2011

Posing

I'm grateful for the comments I've had about some of my Sepia postings.  I like to try to put alternative thoughts into the subjects' minds and try to read the other them below the surface. Even if you strip away the clothes, the hairstyles, the backdrops and props, there remains a difference that is not entirely accounted for by pose and social attitude.  I think it is down to technology, the modern camera is simply too good at copying the image and that is it's downfall.  It has depth of vision, perspective and clarity that old cameras lacked

Enough, enough of that, back to the theme.

The two photos below are of my Great, Great Aunt Barbara taken, I'd guess, about 1880s and 1920s.



In this picture she is a young girl 18 or 20 or so, and she is quite clearly enjoying having her photo taken.  The nonchalant stance, a hint of a suppressed smile, the just off the camera look, her dress and her bonnet seemed to be a construction that says, ".... look, look,...this is me..."

Even as a North Yorkshire country girl from a small village, she seems to have had a style about her and to be up with fashion, and I would suggest well aware of her femininity.

In this picture, unfortunately not a very good image as I had to
scan it from a photocopy  and not the actual photo.
If I'm correct about the dates, Barbara appears still appears to be quite fashionable, which is perhaps more than can be said for her son Billy and his Dexters(?)

2 comments:

  1. Barbara look lovely (in both pictures). You don’t seem to have linked this to Sepia Saturday this week - you should!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Little Nell, I would link to Sepia Saturday, but unfortunately I haven't been able to do so. The words appear to be English but the sentences are something different. How do I?

    ReplyDelete