Friday, December 12, 2014

Sepia Saturday: Crop 'Till You Drop

 Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.



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 Davis Ryan about 1934 Jollett Reunion  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Violetta
My grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan looks to be quite the woman of the 21st century on her cell phone while balancing her iPad.

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.

Jollett Reunion about 1934  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Mary Frances Jollett Davis, UNKNOWN, and Leota Sullivan






















So what was it that the photographer was actually focusing on at the Jollett Reunion? 

Jollett Reunion about 1934  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
My granduncle Millard Davis (right) and a cousin whom I don’t know.




















To see what else is happening in the background, focus on Sepia Saturday.




© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

25 comments:

  1. Funny - the headless woman and what looks to be talking on a cell phone!

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    1. I think it's funny too. It's funny how we impose our modern experience on old photos.

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  2. Mollie looks like she has a wooden leg! hahahahaha! Po' thang!

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    1. I think that's the headless woman. (I found another photo -- it might be Sallie.)

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  3. Very 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.

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    1. Yes, and today we can just photoshop people in or out.

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  4. that 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.

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    1. The perspective does appear a bit off, but I can assure you, this is the original photo unaltered by human technology.

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  5. Very witty Wendy - very witty. What technologically advanced ancestors you had to be sure.

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    1. Indeed, Violetta was ahead of her time in many ways, even if not technologically.

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  6. Millard 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)

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    1. Oh 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.

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  7. Yes it certainly does look like Violetta was using modern day technology.

    She was a teacher wasn't she? How she would have loved modern technology!

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    1. 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.

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  8. Excellent use of the offered theme for this week...and I love that you added the viewpoint of our current day to the observations.

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  9. Wonderful 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.

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    1. HA -- truly! I can't seem to separate my 21st century viewpoint from this photo.

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  10. Clever 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.

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    1. Oh those Davis men loved to dress! My great-grandfather (his father) was always dressed up with a vest and bow tie in his photos.

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  11. I 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?

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    1. I'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.

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  12. Isn'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!

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    1. It is a fun and funny photo, one which I hadn't paid much attention to before the Sepia prompt. Thanks, Jana!

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  13. Good 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.

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