Sunday, August 8, 2010

Some of my Grandmother's Portraits circa 1920

Woman and Planter

Ready When You Are

We Grow Our Own Potatoes
(This is the owner of the hotel where these photos were taken. He was proud that they grew their own food for the hotel)

Beauty in the Backyard
(all photos are clickable thumbnails, titles are mine)

B T W : 
The Photographer Photographed

All of the photos in this post were shot by my grandmother, above, in the early 1920s, with a series of box cameras like the one she is holding in this photo. Sometimes I rue the fact that I can't afford a better digital camera for my art, especially when I see people just taking snapshots with very expensive cameras. But then I think about my grandmother taking these strongly evocative photos with basically a cardboard box, a piece of glass and some film, and I remember that it's not really the machine that makes a photograph, it's the eye behind the camera—and my grandmother had quite an eye! Proof of this is in the negatives. Whenever my grandmother is IN a photo, meaning she handed her camera to someone else to take the photo, they are nowhere near as well-framed or in focus—they are in fact just snapshots. In her hands, the archaic box camera sang like Caruso. But then, I'm biased. : ) 

I've used many of these photos in my art pieces, and I plan on using all of them at some point. When I'm using her images, I feel as if i'm collaborating with her, even though she died in 1969. I also feel as if I'm bringing these long-gone people back to life in a way, allowing the sun to shine on their faces for the first time in who knows how many years. 

These photos were taken in Stony Creek, Connecticut, a tiny shoreline village where my grandmother lived at the time—the same village that hosted LocalColour last year, my art show. Most of the portraits were shot at the Indian Point House Hotel, a grand old wooden resort hotel right on the Long Island Sound, with views of the Thimble Islands. From her diaries it seems she worked there making sure the guests were well-taken care of, organizing the parties and entertainment, and making sure everyone did their jobs well. More importantly, it seems that everyone was a family that worked there, a modern-family inasmuch as many of them weren't married and looked out for each other. My grandmother's first husband died just before my mother was born, and as a result my grandmother had to go to work for the first time. The women that worked for the hotel also took turns watching my mother. "It Takes a Village" as a concept was alive and well in this seaside community almost 100 years ago.

For several more of her vintage portraits please click "Read More" for the jump page.
It Was a Good Day

Sunday Best

In From the Garden

Early Summer Morning

Playful by the Water

Afternoon Respite

No One's Looking

Cool, Cool Water

9 comments:

  1. Yes, Casey, talent will out in the end. Those photographs are great, what I noticed in almost everyone was how she captured and used the shadows so well. I love black and white photography, but I think I have mentioned this before.

    'No one looking' - I wonder if that was posed or just caught at the right moment?

    I will revisit these again tomorrow and spend more time with each one, there is a lot to take in. Again thanks for sharing.

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  2. I'm not sure about No One's Looking. That's my little mom in the center! Some of the negatives were in great shape, others not so much. I've found them in old candy boxes, tucked in drawers and envelopes and in between old papers. Oddly, I've found very few prints of her work, just the negatives. Some of them have turned blue—I have no idea why, maybe the chemicals? Some are just faded to almost nothing, but I'd say 75% are in pretty decent condition for never being curated properly.

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  3. Love the pictures...I have also thought if only I had a better camera and remember reading that it isn't the camera, but the eye behind the camera (and of course, let's hear it for photoshop and editing software!! :)
    I LOVE the shadows from the pergola and also the shadow of your gma taking a picture.
    I am still amazed at the "wealth" of the subjects. I don't know if that is the correct word, but even in everyday clothing, they appear well heeled...and the shoes! wow...
    I also love that she had different settings outdoors..not just a "set" as I saw so often in that age of picture. I was going to say all the people she photographed were so attractive...and they are, however, I really feel your gma was somehow able to show the true nature of the people she shot, showing an inner beauty.
    lovely lovely photos...thanks
    mare

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  4. P.S. I would love to see your 'funky' color-shop on Early Summer Morning. It looks like your work with all the horizontal and vertical lines.

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  5. I'M LATE FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING. ME TOO. LOVED THE PICTURES. I DITTO EVERYTHING ANNIE AND MARE HAD TO SAY. I ESPECIALLY LOVED HOW YOU TOLD THE STORY ABOVE. THANKS FOR SHARING.YOUR FAMILY COMES ACROSS AS BEING VERY GRAND.YOU DON'T SPEAK MUCH ABOUT YOUR DAD. WAS HE AN OFFICER IN THE SERVICE? TIME FOR TV CHURCH. I THINK WE'RE ALL GRAND. DON'T YOU ALL?

    GRANNY

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  6. CASEY, ANNIE SAW THE SHADOWS AND THE FIRST THING I SAW WERE THE BEAUTIFUL FACES AND THE CLOTHES.
    BLACK OR WHITE BEAUTIFUL FACES.

    GRANNY

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  7. I don't really know much about my Dad's family. He was one of about 7 children, but his mother died in childbirth with him, and his father was apparently was in his 60s by then, put all of the kids in an orphanage. The middle kids were all adopted, but my dad and his oldest brother were never adopted. They had a pretty rough time in foster homes, and my dad joined the Navy at 16. He was pretty wild, court martialed a few times, married a couple of times before he met my mother. Then he switched to the Army when he married my mother, and she straightened him out. He was a Master Sergeant when he retired, enlisted in other words. Good man, very good to me and my mom.

    Part of my family felt they were 'grand,' and put on airs, but my immediate family was very down to earth. The Depression hit hard. They always said they were from old money, so old it was gone. But we always had a comfortable life. They lived much better than I do now!

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  8. I agree with everything that Mare said - your grandmother had a great eye. My attention keeps focusing on the clothes, and especially, the shoes! Most of our old family photos were shot from the waist up, almost "portrait style", and rarely gave a glimpse into their everyday life at the time. What a great snapshot of history.

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  9. I HEAR YOU ON THE DEPRESSION. GRAMPS FAMILY HAD IT VERY HARD TO DURING THE DEPRESSION. FROM THEN ON TO THE DAY HE DIED NOTHING WAS BOUGHT EXCEPT IF IT WAS ON SALE.A&P WOULD HAVE APPLE PIE ON SALE FOR 39 CENTS AND THAT WAS WHAT HE WOULD BUY.NOTHING BUT APPLE PIE FOREVER AND EVER APPLE PIE. IT'S FUNNY NOW BUT BACK THEN WE ALWAYS KNEW WHAT WE WERE GOING TO GET FOR DESSERT WHEN WE MADE A VISIT FOR A FEW DAYS. ANOTHER GREAT MEAL THEY WOULD COOK AND I LOVE STILL THIS DAY IS SHELLS, POTAOES AND ONIONS COOKED TOGETHER WITH PAPRIKA.COOK THE SHELLS. COOK THE POTATOES. FRY DOWN THE ONION DOWN UNTIL SOFT, THEN AD THE OTHER INGRE..FRY IT TOGETHER UNTIL YOU THINK IT'S COOK AND BROWN UP A LITTLE BIT. I FOR MYSELF LIKE TO ADD A LITTLE MRS.DASH. GOOD IF FIXED RIGHT A POOR MANS DINNER.

    GRANNY

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