Honey, I Finished The Internet

17 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. Burkas anyone?

2. Photoshop Elements 0.0

3. Begin burka comment in 5, 4, 3, …

4. That is enlightening….
   Curious that…almost…..islamic???
   I never met, nor spoke with my grandparents on either side….. being the youngest child of British immigrants….a potent combination of time and distance…….
   I recall seeing those old tintype photos but the only images I retain are my maternal grandparents….probably because my maternal grandmother had the eyes and the look that would frighten children and curdle milk……
   I recall my maternal grandfather’s image because of that tramatic image…..a mustachioed little man seated while the “witch” stood behind him, as was the custon for such portraits.
   I have recall testimony regarding my maternal grandmother and have applied the required guage of bias depending upon the source.
   Perhaps part is the stiff, stern, formal, dour image Edwardians sought to project…but I have pondered on this and concluded that there was something toxic about that woman….due to the lack of impression the other side’s photos left.
   Associates have reported scary images of some of their ancestors as well…so it must have been cultural.

5. Go on, Mummy, put the curtains over your head and stand behind me. Noone will realize you are here.

6. Holding still over long exposure times had a tendency to make people look a little frightening.

7. As did hiding under a rug and clasping a terrified infant on one’s lap.

8. Practically everything I know I learned at SDA.

9. Just posted the link in a Photography discussion group I belong to. People are both bewildered and somewhat freaked out by it!

10. People wanted a picture of each of their children, as a siginificant percentage did not survive to adulthood. There were even, to us macabre, pictures of deceased children. But they were the only momento to hold on to for the grief stricken parents. More than one picture was only for the very wealthy.

11. Smiling Victorians.
    http://www.retronaut.co/2011/10/victorians-smiling-ii/

12. If we had wanted a picture of mom, we wouldn’t have skinned that damned chesterfield. Now sit still, dammit.

13. Interesting site….”Tips for Single Women, 1938″…
    Obviously, women today have gone through “the change.” 🙂

14. That’s creepy. I’ve seen lots of old photos of my relatives but everyone was in plain view. I don’t understand this. What am I missing?

15. The families wanted photos that only had the children in them, Terry, but they needed the (covered) mother to hold the kid/s because the very long exposure times made it impractical to have the child sit still on their own.

16. ah…thanks Andy. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer sometimes. (:

17. Photographs of the time required that the subjects be held immobile for long periods to avoid motion blur while the lens was open — which accounts for the impassive, expressionless affect of most period pictures — hard to hold a real smile for that long. And children and infants at some ages tend to be distrustful and hard to control except by someone they know and trust, even if that someone is under a drape, as long as she’s hugging them and talking to them, and telling them to stay still for just another few seconds, then it will all be over. Mortality rates on children were very high, and photographs were precious mementos. Often the print had a matte placed over it to focus attention on the child and further conceal the camouflaged parent.