Proof Sheet

 

Cut out from a proof sheet, a contact print made from an entire roll of film.  120 film by the look of it.  Just going by the age and the people, I'm guessing this photo was taken in Japan, sometime near the end of the American occupation of Japan.  A bit before, a bit after. 

Women, Thumbnail

For those too young to remember film, or those not photographically inclined, proof sheets are the thumbnails of conventional image making.  In a nutshell, a roll of film gets cut into strips, laid on top of a piece of photographic paper, a sheet of glass, turn on a light, and biff, bam, boom, you've got a quick reference print of every frame of film.  Someone cut out this very tiny frame from a proof sheet.  No doubt, from a commercial photo shoot.

The Los Angeles Proof Sheet

What I'd do to own these negatives!

This is what I imagine when I see these four images.  A young couple drive their old jalopy across country to seek a good life in southern California.  The  first thing they do is  drive around the city and take pictures of all the things they've  dreamed about.  I did the same thing about forty-five years or so after these photos were taken.