« Welcome To Our House? »

Here is a modest farm and home with no signs of poverty, but these folks don't seem to have a lot to be happy about if their expressions are any indication. Perhaps they are not versed in the social graces. One doesn't imagine that they went out and engaged a local photographer to make this record, so we may guess that a traveling photographer dropped by and persuaded them that it was something they wanted, and the photo survived.

Only the daughter is dressed with anything like a nod to prevailing styles, which makes you wonder what expectations she may have had for a life beyond this dour family group. Yet we, for whom snapping pictures is a part of life, can only go so far in imposing our world view on people who may never have thought about owning a camera and may have been very uncomfortable with having a photograph taken. They may have been fiercely proud of their place; they may have been kind and helpful even if undemonstrative and retiring neighbors; they look at the camera without pretension – they are who they are.

This photo suffered from very strong light that washed out the far right of the photo; I have repaired it to some degree simply because no one intends for a photo to have defects of that nature, so when I restore the effects of age in an old print, I often correct what the photographer could not.

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