The best thing about old photographs is that they show us what life was like in the not-too-distant past.
We see the goodbyes, the hellos, the see-you-soons. These old photos represent the memories of people that can’t speak to us anymore, and who couldn’t leave behind videos the way we can now. Can you imagine how easy it will be for our descendants to understand—or at least know—our time period? Between the video cameras of the mid-20th-century and the cell phone footage of today, they’re set. They’re going to know everything we were up to—if anything is preserved, at any rate.
A simple farmhouse, a portrait of a family at rest.
This is likely out by one of the outbuildings, or a barn, it’s hard to say. Note the windows lack glass. I have no doubts that building is still standing today, if it wasn’t knocked down by other people.
A (presumably) happy time. I particularly like the the wear and fading on the edges of this photograph because it lends some extra character to a picture that already has a fair bit going on.
In my attempts to figure out what “Angels Black As Night” even means I have only found references to the Night Witches of WWII. I don’t imagine these two have anything to do with them, as I don’t think these pictures are from Russia, but I really have no way of knowing. All I can see is two people standing together in front of a hedge or tree. Maybe there are other things I’m missing!
Photographed on horseback in a surprise “hey, say cheese!” sort of pose. Or maybe it’s a “stop screwing around and get back to work” pose. We almost have an excellent silhouette here if you ignore that the front hooves are cut out of the frame!
An attempt was made to get a nice photo of the kids, and it went mostly alright. The little fella is not pleased to be standing getting his picture taken, and the little girl doesn’t seem overly enthused, either. That’s a “I don’t want to smile so I’m gonna pretend” smile if I’ve ever seen one!
A very nice photograph of a young girl with a… fish bowl? It’s hard to tell if there’s anything in there, even with zooming right in close, so I’m not sure if that’s just a house decoration or if there may be a pet in it. Folks certainly didn’t know any better then, and they’re too stubborn to house the poor things properly nowadays (yes, goldfish need filtration and a lot of space). A special occasion, maybe?
This young fellow is looking dapper all dressed up, and the wear from storage adds a slight creepy factor to the photographer’s shadow. This would be a great photo to play with for a horror-adjacent project. Turn the boy into a critter, add some stuff into the background—the possibilities are endless!
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for more free vintage images, including some colouring pages from an old Saalfield activity book!
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I am slowly working on fleshing out and expanding some of my older entries so that they’re more interesting, and more worthwhile to browse. If you go back into the depths of the blog you may notice the changes that have been made!
Like separating gallery blocks into single images.
I am hoping that this helps with visibility, and it will cut down on the number of posts that just have one or two images. I want to make your visits worthwhile, after all!
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