This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt asks Homo Sepians to
focus on what is going on in the background of a photo rather than in the
foreground.
In a single photo from about 1934, I spied two happenings
in the background that are far more interesting than the intended subject.
 |
| Violetta |
Meanwhile her cousin Leota Sullivan is totally
bored. Now I’m sure there are three women
in this photo, but one is headless although Leota and my great-grandmother Mary
Frances Jollett Davis don’t seem to notice or care.
 |
| Mary Frances Jollett Davis, UNKNOWN, and Leota Sullivan |
So what was it that the photographer was actually focusing on at the Jollett Reunion?
 |
| My granduncle Millard Davis (right) and a cousin whom I don’t know. |
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights
reserved.
Funny - the headless woman and what looks to be talking on a cell phone!
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny too. It's funny how we impose our modern experience on old photos.
DeleteMollie looks like she has a wooden leg! hahahahaha! Po' thang!
ReplyDeleteI think that's the headless woman. (I found another photo -- it might be Sallie.)
DeleteVery clever post Wendy. Photographers (professional and otherwise) these days spend so much time posing and getting just the right facial expressions for everyone in the photo but in so many photos from "back then" it seems like it was just point and shoot and you get what you get.
ReplyDeleteYes, and today we can just photoshop people in or out.
Deletethat photo actually looks photoshopped. The background figures look impossibly small, especially the ones on the left. They don't look like they are very far behind the men, but they look only about half as tall.
ReplyDeleteThe perspective does appear a bit off, but I can assure you, this is the original photo unaltered by human technology.
DeleteVery witty Wendy - very witty. What technologically advanced ancestors you had to be sure.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Violetta was ahead of her time in many ways, even if not technologically.
DeleteMillard positively dazzles the eyes in that white suit. I believe when our grandchildren are looking back at photos from this century they will be surprised if they see any people WITHOUT a cellphone in hand! (Which will be me of course)
ReplyDeleteOh I hear ya! I was looking at photos of my Christmas Eve dinner from last year and I'm thinking I need to have everyone check their phones at the door.
DeleteYes it certainly does look like Violetta was using modern day technology.
ReplyDeleteShe was a teacher wasn't she? How she would have loved modern technology!
Yes, she was a teacher. I wonder what she would think of all the technology - she was rather forward-thinking, so I imagine she would have loved it.
DeleteExcellent use of the offered theme for this week...and I love that you added the viewpoint of our current day to the observations.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWonderful Wendy. And if that is a 1934 iPad then Apple must have stolen the design. Get Violetta to call in the copyright lawyers, she might make a fortune.
ReplyDeleteHA -- truly! I can't seem to separate my 21st century viewpoint from this photo.
DeleteClever interpretations of the photo elements Wendy. The unknown cousin in the White suit seems to be much more flash than the rest -perhaps why they were the centre of the photographer's attention, though not yours.
ReplyDeleteOh those Davis men loved to dress! My great-grandfather (his father) was always dressed up with a vest and bow tie in his photos.
DeleteI laughed because my immediate thought when I saw the photo of your great-Aunt Violetta was the same as yours - cell phone & iPad. I wonder what she was really doing & carrying?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Violetta was scratching her face and carrying a legal pad. ??? I can't imagine that she was doing schoolwork at the reunion but who knows.
DeleteIsn't it fun to get not only what appears to be a staged photo (two men in the center) but a candid shot as well with all the happenings in the background? Great photo Wendy!
ReplyDeleteIt is a fun and funny photo, one which I hadn't paid much attention to before the Sepia prompt. Thanks, Jana!
DeleteGood Lord a headless woman, and to the left is her ghostly male partner just alighting from the car and waving his arm about; he’s lost his head too! How strange but delightfully intriguing. I spent far too long peering at this photograph. Thank you.
ReplyDelete