Saturday, December 12, 2015

Class Photo



I have enough photos in the collection that there's usually some sort of plan for the next 4 or 5 posts.  There are a half dozen or so found photography blogs that I check on a regular basis and more that I visit from time to time.  Anyway, once in awhile, the line-up gets disrupted when one of those blogs publishes something that's so similar that I don't want to seem like a copycat.  This photo, dated "1931" was set to go about a month ago, but was delayed.

Clearly elementary school, but what grade?  Fourth or fifth would be my best guess.  Click on the image for a bigger window, and you'll see some interesting things going on.  The kid in the lower right corner looks like he's in some sort of boy scout uniform and also looks pretty unhappy.  I bought this photo here, in Los Angeles, and the one Asian in the group asks the question; Japanese or Chinese?   If she's Japanese, she almost certainly ended up in a World War 2 internment camp, like Manzanar.  The two girls in the upper left hand corner look like young seductresses.  The boy, five from the left, top row has his hands on the shoulders of the boy just below him.  There's a heavy set boy in the second row from the top who looks really happy, and immediately to his right, a boy with crossed arms and a look of arrogance on his face.  And the standing girl with the flowers, she looks pretty tall.  And, of course, the always looming questions for a class photo dated 1931; how many of these kids ended up in the war?  How many died?  How many war widows?

1 comment:

  1. This is a good one! I love class photos because the kids are just trying to be themselves. If they hate the whole thing you can read it in their face. No attempt to hide their boredom or disdain.

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