See My Dress...

....or is it the shoes we're supposed to notice. And why are the ladies in the second picture so amused?

True Color, Grayscale, and Silvering

Every time I scan in a photograph I have to make a decision whether I should use the grayscale or the true color setting. As a former professional black & white printer, I'm always tempted to go grayscale, but after some thought, I decided that, for this blog, I should do my best to duplicate the look of the original. That would be an easy decision for this image. The original is a mounted albumen print with a rich brown, sepia tone. But with many photographs the choice is far less obvious. Many of the old snapshots I have in the collection are in that zone between a nice black & white photo with blacks, whites, and gray mid-tones, and slightly yellowish-brown tones, caused by a less than successful, final, archival wash. When I worked at photo labs, one of my jobs was operating a copy camera. Sometimes our customers would bring in old family photos, and some of those would be leaching photographic silver and, of course, silver reflects light. When prints aren't washed or fixed properly, over time the residual silver will begin to show on the surface of the print. When making prints from copy negs, if the silvering wasn't too bad, we could always burn in backgrounds or print to a non matching contrast to hide the problem. When scanning a print into a computer the silver can make it almost impossible to get a decent scan. There is a bit of silvering on this print, seen in the uneven tones in the bottom third of the print. Mounted on cardboard, labeled, "Milton Loryea SPOKANE WASH." Written on the back, "Charles Butter."

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Added: Milton Loryea Photo Studio was listed in the Spokane city directory from 1893 to 1909. He and his brother Archie, also a photographer moved to Spokane from San Jose, California in 1892. Archie died in 1900.

Chinatown, Los Angeles

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A color postcard, printed in the front margins, "DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHIC CO., PUBLISHERS." and, "7343. ARE THE POLICE COMING?" The Detroit Photographic Company made it's first appearance in the city registry in 1888. It was a provider of photographic images for advertising and publishing purposes. In 1897, under the leadership of partners, William A. Livingston, Jr., and Edwin H. Husher, the Detroit Photographic Company acquired exclusive North American rights to the photochrom process, a photolithography method that allowed for mass printings of color postcards from original black and white photographs. In 1905, the company changed it's name to the Detroit Publishing Company. For more information on the company's acquisition of the photochrom process go to www.photochrom.com/Detroit.html At http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/america.html I found an image from the Detroit Photographic Company catalog of children in Chinatown in Los Angeles that seems to be a different angle of the same location. The Detroit Photographic Company declared bankruptcy in 1924 and it's assets were liquidated in 1932.

Versailles 2

This is third of four from a collection of nightclub souvenir photo folders all from the same source. The only thing written on this one is a date, "Apr-28-49." On some of the other folders, from this group, there are notes addressed to Evelyn. I can't be 100% sure, but I think the woman on the right is Evelyn. The man can be seen, in uniform, in the Latin Quarter post (2/8/11) and the woman (Evelyn?) on the right can be seen in another post, with a different cover design, from Versailles. (2/14/11) Stamped on the back cover, "Versailles NEW YORK No. 7378. For extra copies write to: VERSAILLES 151 East 50th Street, New York 22, N.Y. Use Number on back of Print Stating date taken and name of Club along with description of Photo." It's still my dream to find the negative files from one of these old, out of business, nightclubs from the thirties, forties, and fifties. I've got a number of these old souvenir photo folders, most with an interesting cover design to go along with the photo. As usual, click on nightclubs, or souvenir photo folder in the labels section to bring them up.

Casper, Wyoming

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Stamped on the back, "Made at The Picture Shop, Casper, Wyo." Hotel staff from the 1920's I would think. Anyone out there from Casper that can identify the hotel, or tell me it's something else, please leave a comment.

Oval Portrait

Well, someone took a razor blade to the card on which this photo was mounted. Too bad, the whole card might have had some info on it. Maybe a photographer's mark, studio logo, or subject's name. Nineteenth century, perhaps very early twentieth.

Scare Crows

Hand printed on postcard stock, but not printed well. The drop off on the right side of the print was either caused by the use of the wrong focal length lens or a variable condenser put in the wrong position. I've got several versions of this postcard, and of the three, this one is the one with the most image and strongest focus. One of the things that fascinates me about old photos is what they can show us about life so many years a ago. It's nice to see what kind of clothes people wore or what kind of cars they drove, but an image like this goes far beyond that. In a time before radio, television, and the Internet, if a person wasn't able to entertain him or herself, life could be very, very boring. People would get together and sing around parlor pianos, they'd form town bands, and amateur theatrical groups. I doubt that the Scare Crows were professional actors. These people probably did nothing more complex than getting together and working out some entertaining acts to amuse themselves. It looks like they preformed in a barn, and their audience was probably no larger than their own friends. Now, how did I entertain myself today? I surfed the web, watched TV, and listened to the radio. I really had no need to go out and interact with other people. And that brings us to the big question: Has our society, dominated by electronic communication mediums made us more isolated as people?