Sepia Saturday
Old photographs are wonderful aren't they? I know I am preaching to the converted, but isn't it wonderful how an old photograph can send you on a journey : a fascinating journey of discovery. Take our archive image this week which comes from the Samuel Bell Maxey Collection at the Texas State Archives and is available via the wonderful Flickr Commons service. The only information provided is that it is a photograph of Lala Williams and Elgie Crook, but with just a few Google clicks you can discover that ...... Well, I don't want to spoil the journey for you, so go and click your own Google and take your own journey of discovery.
Alan Burnett
Found this tintype on Flickr Photo Stream belonging to
A Mr. Biggs who collects vintage photos.
He stated
"This is a tintype found at a flea-market. Caption reads
Tissy and Mary White (Twins) "
This is a creepy looking photo, maybe because it is so dark.
As you know folks are able to comment on Flickr Photo streams and several folks mentioned that this reminded them of Arbus.
I knew nothing about Arbus
Well that lead me on another research.
Diane Arbus (
/diːˈæn ˈɑrbəs/; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.".[2]
Diane believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit
harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what
people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws.[3] A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.[4][5][6][7]In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.[8] Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979.[9][10] Between 2003 and 2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations.[11] In 2006, the motion picture Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.[12]
An Arbus Photo
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