I have been collecting old photographs for about twenty years (OH MY GOD!), but only seriously for about ten. It started when I found a complete photo album at a flea market. It covered the whole length of a woman's (named Nellie) life. It was a fascinating spectrum of life in the early twentieth century, but also was filled with the melancholy of a life that had ended with no one left to reminisce about it. It lead me to start the series,
Presence of Absence, in 2003, though I was never able to bring myself to include Nellie in the images. I collect albums, but started focusing on singular images. Even so, I amassed a huge collection... I can't count the number of images I have, but should probably count them in pounds. Even so, a lady doesn't talk about weight.
I swore off collecting not too long ago; I wasn't working on "Presence of Absence" any more, and I didn't have a way to display them, and they were over-flowing the large plastic tub dedicated to them. Except if I saw something special (like a $4 daguerreotype, to round out my Technical History of Photography samples).
But in the last several weeks, I have found some new special images I couldn't stop myself from buying. Here is yesterday's:
This image is from 1910, and is an amazing time-capsule of Art-Nouveau living in a functional setting (as opposed to the decorative, unlived-in illustrations of decor we know the period through). Look at all the patterns! The rug, the wallpaper, the curtains, the couch, the doilies.
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| The details are charming. The little dog on the geometric-print couch,
with the applique pillows (including a flag motif). The photographs
stuck in every fame and shelf and even attached to the walls. (Click to see all the fabulous details!) | The beautiful, elaborate wallpaper with the frumpy, gauzy curtains. The
Gernsbackian light bulb suspended over the top-heavy goldfish bowl. (Click to see all the fabulous details!) |
The piles of player piano rolls, filling the desk in a visual prediction of the future digital desktops riddled with mp3s. The dinged leather shoes with white socks, hovering above the overly-ornate carpet.
I have this idea about how photographs were made in the early 20th-century. Or rather, I'm trying to formulate an idea. When I see images like this one, I can't help thinking there was already a sense of performance art, at least for the camera. I don't think this image could be any more perfect. The blank white siding with the single, small window way-off to the side balanced by the rectangular dark frame of the distant figure standing near the probably-functional prop of the water pump. The random placement of sharp and soft focus points. The mannish-woman hanging the infinitely long line of non-specific laundry (seriously, how many white square patches could one have to clean?).
This series was purchased from the same box in a shop. The three women don't always look like the same people, but they could be. I imagine they are. All the images are the same size and shape, though the first has more distinct black-tones.
Here they are fashionably posed in what I assume is everyday wear. I am also attracted to early home-photography. This age, most people would only have images from a studio, so these are all the more exciting.
Here, the ladies are posed with a shack. What are they doing here? Are they camping? Acting? Reenacting? Site-specific performance art? They each have a hat (the one in the doorway is using it to cover her face). The one on the right is gazing off in thought, though it feels created for the photograph. Is that a decorative dog on that indoor-outside chair? And what an amazing composition.
Here they are again. This time, I can't doubt they are important early performance artists, yet unknown to the history of art and women artists. They are wearing kimonos or bedsheets or curtains. They are posed with a tent, though the cabin is visible in the background. Oddly, none of the women look like the same people to me, so maybe it was a large retreat of artists, creating different tableaus. (There's the dog again, sans bow!)
This photo was from the same box and the same store. It could be the same people, but there is less in common (image size, location, etc.) with the other photos. We should note that this would have been done with a pan of gun-powder to create the flash lighting. Not exactly safe in an enclosed cave.
There are a lot of spooky things in this image, some probably on purpose, and others as accidents. The "2" in the upper right is some kind of light streak (though on first glance, I thought it was marker on the negative), as is the blob in the center. But where did that black happy face on the white dress come from?
For a while, I actively collected images of kids on wheels: kids in trams, kids on bikes, kids in wagons. I saw this kid in a wheel barrow with the goat... couldn't not grab it up too. So I guess I fell off the wagon and started collecting kids on wheels again.
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