Mom, dad, three kids and creepy Uncle Bob in the background. I have a soft spot for photos like this. My father was born in 1919, lived through the Great Depression, and served in World War 2. He was very proud of his cars and always kept them clean and polished.
What is the T.C. W. Co.? It's in the lower left corner, so maybe this isn't a school class photo. It probably is. All the children look like they are around the same age, and they are in the classic class photo setup. Also, 2908, which is also visible in the lower left corner. Is that a date? August 1929? The clothing and hair look right for that era.
I have this stack of faded photos I was going to post in a series, but I got distracted, so before I go back to faded photo land, an Easter themed photograph.
Written on the back, "Easter 1954 Mike-6 1/2 yrs. Linda-4 1/2 yrs. Green dress, white shoes, socks, purse & gloves. Blue suit, brown shoes, white shirt and brown bow tie." I guess the parents were worried that they wouldn't remember what their children were wearing.
This reminds me. I need to go to the camera store and buy some Polaroid film. I wish Impossible Project hadn't stopped making Spectra film. I liked that format. Anyway, this really is an old-style Polaroid film that required a paper cover to be peeled off the image to complete processing. I'm fairly certain this is a Polaroid Series 20 film, made for the Swinger camera model made between 1965 and 1970. Of course, the film packs were manufactured long after the Swinger went out of production, so this photo could have been taken after 1970, but the well-groomed hippie beard on dad screams 1960s.
Some people have legible handwriting, some don't. Two people have written on the back of this print; one had good, readable handwriting, the other, not so much. So, the not-so-readable first. "Breyding House-Durand, Mich.-Vera born here." I have no idea if I've deciphered what I assume is a family name, but Breyding is my best guess. I really couldn't make out the town name, but I was sure of the first and last letter, so I scrolled through Michigan town names online, and the only one I found that made sense was Durand, a township with a 2020 population of 3,507. There's no date on the picture, but late 19th century is about right, so how much did the population change in 130 years?
The readable part, "Mother, Vera, Father Roy, Emma, Grandmother, Otto, George, Grandfather."
I've run out of snow photos. Written on the back, "Jan. 1948."
Well, I don't really know if the weather is bad everywhere, but it is bad in Los Angeles. I can't make up my mind. Does this kid look happy to be outside in the snow?
It looks like this one was cut down from a larger print. And it's still out of focus. With those haircuts, I'm guessing the 1920s. With the exception of the kid in the lower left, who is looking down, all appear to be little girls. Notice that he's wearing an Indian headdress with a single feather.
This is a make-good for my last post. That one was probably shot in 2024, written on the back of this one, "Burt about 1913." Before I became fascinated by photos from all eras, my collecting was mostly images that were at least 100 years old. This photo started as a real photo postcard that was cut down to a smaller size.
Written on the back, "Grady & May with children & Don." No date, but my guess is somewhere in the 50s.
Truthfully, after a while, it gets hard to think up yet another title. It looks like this photo was taken in the country, maybe on a farm.
If I were being completely honest, this blog would be called The Recently Purchased Photography since almost every image I've posted was bought at a thrift store, antique store, flea market, or online. Every once in a while, however, I actually find photos and this new collection is truly found photography.
Anyway, I was walking to the pharmacy to get a flu shot and the latest COVID update, when I passed by a stack of garbage, on the curb, waiting for pickup by the trash collectors, when I caught sight of a rather large photo album just sticking out of a large, black garbage bag. After making sure it wasn't covered by rotting food or some other nasty thing I wouldn't want in my home, I grabbed it, stuffed it into my pack, and hurried off to get needles stuck in my arm.
So, when I write that this album is large, it's not just the sheer number of photos, but also, its dimensions. I couldn't get a scan of the album cover, so I had to take a photo with my cell phone camera. It was when I tried to scan the first page that I had to decide just how anal I was going to be about getting every inch of information posted. To make a long story short, after experimenting with posting the entire album page to show placement by doing it in sections, and then seeing just how unevenly lit a phone pic was, well let's just say that the date, 1971, got cropped a bit and I'm just going to have to live with it.
I don't know how long it's going to take to post this entire album. More than likely I'll go back to using one post to show the whole album page for placement and then do the individual photos in a separate post. Something to look forward to, there will be a couple of posts with no photos at all. The owner has some written pages that are kind of interesting. So, click on The Trips Collection in labels to see everything, though it could be a while until the whole album is up for viewing.
Time to return to the Random Japanese Snapshot Collection. As I mentioned in part 1, I purchased an envelope of small snapshots from an eBay seller in Japan. I really have no idea how random they actually are. For all I know they all came from the same family, or maybe they have no relationship to each other. So far, there aren't that many to see, but click on Random Japanese Snapshots Collection in labels to see what's what. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking pre-World War 2.
I'm closing in on the final few posts from this particular album page. I have purchased a second page from the same seller that looks like it's from the same era, so when I get around to putting that one up it will have the same common label, The Los Angeles Indiana Collection. Great California car culture roadster, by the way, even if the family looks more Midwest farm than L.A.
There's a lot written on the back of this print. "Taken April 10-1930. Mary 7 years old May 23, 1930." And then a couple of lines, only part of which I can make out. "Nichols on" and then I just can't read it. I suspect it's a location, but who knows.
This class picture was cut down from a real photo postcard, at one time was put in a photo album, and considering how much it was cut down, most of the original photo was nothing but background. I like the one kid in the back row who seems to be laughing.
