A couple of vintage photos I purchased from ebay...

I'm glad to see things are starting to roll. In the coming weeks, as we gain members and this group gets more exposure, I'm sure we'll all have a clearer picture of how the focus of this group is beginning to develop (all puns intended ;-) ) maybe to widen the discussion a little, I thought I'd post a few vintage photos I purchased off of E-Bay, since I thought this group could also be a resource for discussing the history and development of photography, as well as a place to appreciate photographers from previous times--known or unknown.

I don't really collect old photos like these, but for some reason I seemed to have amassed quite a few. If I see something I really like, and it's in my price range, I tend to buy it.

I have no idea who these people are, so please don't ask, I just thought I'd put them up and see what everyone thought.



This first one is of a young, sophisticated lady from an prior era, perhaps an early suffragette by the looks of it. She looks smart and ambitious, I think she knows which way to vote...





This second one I had to really dig for, but I'm glad I did--it's one of my favorites. Very rarely do you see smiles in portraits from this time period (long exposures, they had to sit still for long periods of time, you know) let alone this kind of playfulness.

You really get a sense for the personality of the two women, and their relationship to one another.

There's also a pleasant, spiraling composition going on, and an interesting contrast between black and white...I personally love it.

My grandmother, who is now deceased, had a wonderful photo of herself and two of her cousins from the 1940s posing in what looked like poses that could have come out of a James Dean film. They looked like a gang of real toughs standing around or leaning on a 1940s car that was at the time new.

I told her how cool I thought the photo was when I saw it and she said she wouldn't part with it for the world. Both she and my grandpa have since died and I don't know what has happened to the photo, but I'll never forget it.