Entries in OUR PLACE (8)

Thursday
Aug272009

Country Home

At least I hope it's the country. If not, I think they need to have a serious talk with the town council about what they are paying taxes for – that road looks like it has been recently plowed and is ready for planting! No automobile would go anywhere on that road in wet weather.

The child is wearing a kerchief so I think we are looking at a little girl in spite of the britches. If grandma had granddad bring the upholstered rocker into the yard and then didn't sit in it for the photo, do you suppose he made her take it back inside herself (well, probably not if he wanted any supper)? The carriage has nice seats but isn't sprung all that well.

Those of us who didn't live before paved streets, enclosed automobiles, electric water heaters, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and stoves, indoor bathrooms with showers and flush toilets, don't truly understand the meaning of the word clean!

Monday
Aug102009

Our Place, In Town, 1900

Another in the “Our Place” genre, this one in the American South at the turn of the last century, a town home in a neighborhood of tree-lined streets and above average size houses close to one another. Porches were a social extension of the houses’ living space; before air conditioning, television, computers and all the other things that claim our hours, family and friends entertained one another with gossip, current events, and stories – conversation was cultivated. Children grew up knowing what family and community meant by sitting and listening to these evening rituals.

Everyone is looking intently at the photographer; no one appears uncomfortable which means that whether you were a cook, housekeeper or gardener, you were invited to be a part of this visual family record. The only somewhat retiring figure is the tall, somberly dressed woman on the right. One of the charming hallmarks of these architectural/family exercises is that there is rarely any effort to organize the grouping – people stand wherever and however they choose, dress as formally or informally as they choose. One woman on the porch is wearing her best hat and poses a bit dramatically with one hand on her hip. The girl in the center with her hand on the tree is a striking brunette; her dress has the flamboyant shoulder ruffles so fashionable and her broad beret is like the boys’ Buster Brown caps of the period.

Every photograph is a story bound in time. Every camera is a timebinder.

Tuesday
Jul072009

Our Little Home

Here is a particularly charming example of what I call the “our place” genre of family photos. For such a tiny house, it has large house pretensions: a bay window, dormers, a mansard/gambrel style roof and two chimneys. It appears to sit on an insubstantial foundation – almost directly on the ground – which gives it an almost toy-like appearance, like someone just left it in the yard after they were through playing with it!

Does the elder gentleman own the house or is he just taking charge of the photo process; he sports a mutton chop beard and may hold a large, curved German-style briar pipe in his hand? The son and retiring daughter-in-law (we assume) stand in the background, but the daughters steal the show – they have chosen to climb out of the window onto the tiny roof to display a family cat and a doll! They are such sweet, smiling little misses, one brunette and one blond, that I will give you a close up to enjoy. I also enjoy the wife who stands with her arms folded behind her, watching with intent curiosity (her daughters may be very like her); this photo may not have been her idea but it may have survived in her care. Everything about this photo gives you the feeling that this would be a pleasant family to know and the girls are enjoying a happy childhood. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

I believe this is 19th century, as early as 1870s, but could also be early 20th century; the seller found it in Oregon and had reason to believe the family was from San Jose, CA. Though there are few leaves on the trees there are none on the ground, so it may be early Spring rather than late Fall. I can tell little about the nature of the structures and sheds on the left, but there is a large pickle or sauerkraut crock next to the broom by the kitchen door. The rickety fence is clad in chicken wire but I see no chickens here. Do they farm for a living, or like many, does he hold another job and supplement the food supply with gardens and a few animals?

Are we being unseemly curious about the affairs and circumstances of past lives when we look at photos? I’m sure most of the people in them might be puzzled by the kinds of questions we ask. By their very purpose, photos are to be looked at, so what are we to do, just stare and have no reactions or questions? Not I!

This is a large cabinet print that is in relatively good condition with the exception of a series of fine cracks in the glossy emulsion that radiate like shattered glass – something I have never seen before. Sorry, but I have to ask: couldn’t the photographer have moved a bit to the left or the right so the tree was not the most prominent feature?

Monday
Jun222009

This Is Our House

Americans, particularly middle and upper middle class Americans, put the camera to work recording their pride of place. The cameraman set up the view camera to include the house and yard, the family (extended family and servants, too) stood arrayed on the porch and in the yard, often with horses, carriages and anything else that they wanted to display. This was a self-conscious exercise that is conveyed by a rather flat-footed stance, tensely waiting for the shutter and the camera operator's assurance that they could relax, the deed was done.

We may be amused but the survival of these photos in their thousands is evidence that it was a serious thing.

That they survive usually doesn't mean they have had much care – they have darkened and discolored with age and their presence in homes that have been heated and lit with coal, oil, gas lamps and years of exposure to cooking stoves and tobacco smoke have taken their toll. Below shows, left to right, the image after it has been scanned, the image restored, and the image as it looked before restoration.

Scan                                                    Restored                                             Original State

Wednesday
Jun172009

Barn Builders

Farming was by necessity the core means of survival for the first 300 years in America, augmented by fishing and hunting where possible. If you had the acreage and the head for it, you might do very well, but for most people it was subsistence farming – the only sure way to make a place for yourself and your family. A small percentage of the population were merchants, small manufacturers, and such professions as lawyers, teachers, builders, doctors, etc., and even then they may also have farmed. If you didn't have a successful farm or lucrative profession for support, you didn't run for national office as a life career, you served for a term or two and went back home to attend to making a living.

Barns were built to last using tree-sized posts and beams and the wooden pegged mortise-and-tenon construction that came from house and barn building techniques in Europe. The entire frame was erected before it was enclosed. The builders in this photo have the confidence that comes from years of construction (and they didn't have a boom crane to assist them).

Barns were a part of the landscape from coast-to-coast but only a fraction have survived; if they are no longer being used in active farming or have not been converted to other uses, they are rapidly decaying and going back into the ground from which they sprang. You will see many barns in the Timebinder collection of images – most of them survive only in photographs.