I just picked this photo up today, and I figured I'd better get it posted as soon as possible. It's small, really small. 1.25 x 2 inches, and I need to get it into the storage box before I lose it. Anyway, I don't know what to make of it. Clearly, it's from before the age of the photo booth. It could be a contact or reduction print. I'm not aware of any film this small manufactured in the 19th or very early 20th century.
Returning to the faded photos series. I think youngish ladies, though the image is so faded I can't be sure.
I hate it when people do this. Someone at some time cut up a cabinet card. Maybe it was so it would fit in a frame, or a wallet. In any case, a bit of history has been vandalized. An unimportant bit of history, perhaps, but a piece of the past, nevertheless. Not all, but many cabinet cards will have a photographer's studio logo on the back. There's just a bit of one left on this picture, but not enough to be worth scanning.
Just a pretty young woman sitting around outside. My best guess is from the late teens to the mid-1920s. There's a stamp on the back. "ASK FOR (VELVET SHEEN FINISH)"
My guess is from the 1920s to the early 30s. The photographer's shadow intrudes.
Written on the back, "28th Dec 1947, Doris June, Emily, Vida, Dicy. Our feet got lost somewhere in the camera. Ha." What kind of name is Dicy? It has to be short for something. There's also a processing lab stamp, "JAN 1948 STUDER S. A. TEX." I assume that S.A. stands for San Antonio.
Written on the back, "The four little Sisters taken at Elinor & Bills. Thanksgiving Day Nov 24, 1950."
Well, I've been away from The New Found Photography for a while. I was out of town, and finances are a bit tight so I haven't really been increasing the size of the photo collection, and what can I say, out of sight, out of mind.
So, if nothing else, a return to the The Los Angles Indiana Collection, and by clicking on that, the whole lot can be brought up for viewing. Anyway, I called it that because on the first page I purchased from this album, there were prints with a Los Angeles-themed decorative border, and I purchased them from an eBay seller in Indiana. I had made the decision not to remove photos from album pages until it was time to scan individual photos. Perhaps I shouldn't have waited since two of these photos have information on the back, and one includes a new location. So, on the back of the top photo in the column, "Me & Aunt Lou." And on the back of the middle photo, a processor's stamp, "Kodak Finishing J.H. Ward, Lamar, Colo."
I'd love to know where this picture was taken and what it took for these two ladies to get there, dressed as they are. The woman on the left is wearing a veil, at least when it's blown up, you can see netting over her face. And the woman on the right is holding a folding camera.
No more waiting for the final post from this photo album page. A few weeks ago, I bought another album page from the same eBay seller in Indiana. I don't know whether it's from the same album or not, but when I do start on it, it'll have the same label, The Los Angeles Indiana Collection, which can be used to bring up all the previous posts from this page.
This is a favorite pose of politicians, running for office. Slightly below eye line, looking off at a slight angle. Though, I suspect this lady isn't throwing her hat in the ring. I suspect she's looking away from the sun.
Written on the back, "Altu Dondok 4/41" So, is that a name or some sort of notation? I started doing some research, and I came up with Altu as a Turkish name meaning prince, but it's a surname rather than a forename. I gave Google Translate a try using the detect language function and that gave me Corsican for high, and Turkish for six. Prince in Turkish, according to Google Translate, is Prens, so that's a bit confusing. Now, about Dondok, it's a Russian, as well as a Malaysian surname. Once again, I used the translation setting and nothing came up at all. So, if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to suggestions.
I'm always a bit wary about what's written on the back of photos. I buy them at flea markets, antique stores, and on eBay. This picture was purchased in an envelope full of snapshots and "EM 65" could refer to almost anything. Still, the hair and clothes could easily be from 1965, and Em could be short for Emma or Emily, so Em from 1965 it is.
Well, it's a wallet-sized photo, and when I worked in photo labs, I hated printing that size. You don't know how hard it is to dodge and burn an image that's this small. So, she looks young, so there's a real probability that this is a school photo, and it's also been hand-tinted.
There are some squiggly lines written on the back of the print that I assume are words, but they're so indistinct that I'm not even going to try and translate. There is, however, a printer's stamp that's quite easy to understand. "Foto-Thiele m h922 a.d. Kaisereiche" And not one, but two dates. The handwritten one, "6-7-55." And the stamped one, "24.6.55" So, processed June 24, 1955, but dated July 6, 1955? It makes me think this woman might be an American living in Germany. The stamp is in the European style, with the date before the month, while the handwritten date, in the American style, so actually June 6, 1955, the date the photo was actually taken. In 1955 there was still a lot of American military and diplomatic personnel living in Germany. So, why the title? Well, I assumed that Kaisereiche was a street somewhere in Germany. I did a quick internet search and discovered that it's a district in Berlin named for an oak tree planted by German nobility that still survives to this day.
I've always thought the disco era was a reaction to the whole hippie back to the earth ethos of the sixties.
I don't know where this was taken, but I walk through the old, abandoned, Los Angeles Zoo, from time to time, and sure looks like it was taken near the cages.
