This wonderful turn of the century print shows us as nice a group of children as you could care to know, and it would be hard to imagine a more handsome group. A donkey is a safe choice for children, stronger and better tempered even than a pony.
It is easy to critique the work of a photographer unless you have “been there and done that”: we have all seen both the opportunity and the shot we want and come up short because of miscalculations regarding lighting or exposure. This was one of those situations – but the photographer felt like it was worth printing anyway and we can be glad for it. There is no studio identification on the mount and it was perhaps an amateur effort. The camera case is sitting by the tree, probably 5”x7” negative size.
Strong directional light is from the upper front left and the exposure was misjudged, but not fatally, just not ideal. Having only the print, I cannot tell if all that was possible was done in the darkroom to bring up the tones in the face and clothing. The original has considerable foxing and accumulated dirt.
Image editing software has the tools to reclaim a print from time and damage, and restore the shortcomings to some degree – if you are willing to invest the time. This one was worth it.
