September 19, 2009

Saturday Snapshots {September 19, 2009}


“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't
own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.” ~ Harvey MacKay




{An incredibly pretty young woman smiles sweetly as her portrait is snapped in this photo from 1949. She is the embodiment of the end of the forties, in her look I see so many elements that those who adore this period now strike for with our own styles. Though the description below the shot simply says “Ma mère, my mother”, I fully believe that this strikingly beautiful lady could have been a model or actress, had she wished.}



{A lovely pair of young Italians pose in front of a rustically brick home. I adore his smart double breasted overcoat and round spectacles, as well as her crisply pressed collar and upswept mass of dark curls. The fact that she’s not looking directly into the lens adds something special to this shot, too. This point leaves me wondering, were they perhaps not romantically involved but instead relatives?}



{A man beams with pride as he holds a darling baby boy in his arm, circa 1947. Though it isn’t specified whether the child is his son, grandson or other relation, I like to this it’s his first grandbaby.}



{Three young ladies clad causally in head scarves and pants share a moment of fun on a swing set. I adore this photo, it reminds me hanging out with my own girlfriends on the playground after our weekly Girl Guide meeting (which was held at an elementary school).}



{Vintage shots of couples kissing candidly in public are not particularly common, so it’s always a delight to encounter one such as this. Note her gloved hands and what looks like a cigarette nestled between her fingers, as she locks lips with this gent.}



{Two people are visited by a flock of pigeons as they stroll through Ultrecht, Netherlands in 1953. The saturated hues in this shot paired with the woman in the background sporting bright green coat make this shot almost seem like something from a circus or performance show.}



{The high level of adorableness in this late 1940s shot in undeniable, it’s also rather fun to imagine wandering through a group of deer en route to your handsome black car.}



{A group of people hang out on a beach pier in this summery shot from 1947. I especially like how you can see their colourful reflections in the water’s calm surface below.}



{A preciously sweet child sits sandwiched between two adults, neither of whom seem to be paying attention to her, in this fantastic candid bus shot which was taken by photographer Walker Evans who is well known for his contribution to the 1941 book “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”. This shot however originally hailed from a lesser known book entitled Many Are Called.}



{At first glance there is something sweetly pin-upish about this cute shot, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d say that it wasn’t taken with the intent of being risqué, but rather that the gal behind the lens snapped a photo of her friend as she finished putting her clothes back on after sunbathing. What leads me to think this? The neatly arranged shoes to our model’s left and the fact that this photo was captured on a rooftop with the woman situated on a towel.}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}


My husband, the perpetually sweet soul that he is, sometimes feels a sense of melancholy when he looks at old photos or thinks about decades that we wasn’t a part of. The people from such eras, he muses, have often passed away or are quite elderly now, a point which saddens him a touch to ponder. I fully understand that perceptive and have shared similar thoughts too, but personally, in general, I like to focus on thinking about the time unknown people in vintage and antique photos had on this earth. The moments they treasured, the smiles they shone for the lens, the days and years that filled their lifetime, and what it must have been like to have experienced such bygone decades firsthand.

20 comments:

  1. I love the picture of the man holding the baby, so sweet!! I also love seeing vintage photographs in color, being able to see the people and clothing as they truly were makes the shot seem so much more alive!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are all wonderful. I think, depending on my mood, I am sometimes saddened by the photos, too. Sometimes it's for the more selfish reason, though, that most of the photos I have are just of myself and not of cherished memories.
    -Andi x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh thank you, I think my favorite is the deer photo with the beautiful car and lady.

    I do so understand your husband but we need to look as you say on the happy times they had.
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the bathing photo, the colourful one.

    I agree with your husband, looking at old pictures fills me with a feeling of happiness but also sadness that these people and these times are no longer around.

    Carla xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jessica, I love these photos!! I especially love the girls on the swing. I remember wearing some "peddle pushers" back in the '60's and it just brings back memories. You have brightened my day my friend , thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love these shots! I love seeing old photos in color. Sometimes I see so many old shows and movies in black and white that I start to think they didn't have color back then! lol

    ReplyDelete
  7. You find the loveliest photos! I am so envious. I love looking at these images and you have a talent for finding the best. That kiss in the woods is so sweet, and I've never seen a better bird feeding photo! Happy Sunday.
    Marie @
    Lemondrop Vintage

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey there. Great post. Love the photos. I hope you've been having a wonderful weekend. Take care. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh Sweet Jessica...I love this post, thank you for sharing all of these lovely photos!

    I am so smitten with old photos, I immediately study the clothes, hairstyles and accessories. I too ponder about their lives and what it was like to live in that era. I have always felt that I was born a couple decades too late. I love all things form the 40's!

    Big Hugs,
    Karyn

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gorgeous snapshots this week. I often think about the people in vintage pictures, too. What are they doing now? How did their life turn out? It seems funny to think of what became of the lovely people highlighted in blogs and webpages, but I wish them all well, wherever they are :)

    Have a wonderful weekend,
    Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  11. i love those photos. wouldn't it be wonderful to go back to those simplier times? i wonder if anyone will say that about our times.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is an incredibly moving assortment of shots. I love the photo of the girl, it's almost haunting.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jessica, all the pictures are wonderful. I couldn't pick a favorite. What a sweet man your husband is...I understand how he feels, but your thoughts (so beautifully put into words) is the way I like to think about them.

    Happy Sunday,
    Holly

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah, I love these pictures! The way little moments can be so beautifully captured in a photograph takes my breath away.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I completely understand that same feeling. Sometimes I wish we had just a little more time with them. There is still so much to learn from them. And stories to absorb. However, I also agree with the feeling of imagining what their lives were like and celebrating that great generation of people through pictures and such. I love to look at old photos. There so beautiful and there is always a story that you can imagine up behind them. Thanks for sharing! I look forward to these Vintage photos every week. I was thinking of posting some Vintage candid's from my own family up on my blog.

    XOXO,
    Syd

    ReplyDelete
  16. Saturday Snapshots always leave me with a smile on my face. Also, there needs to be more green coats & jacket in this world.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Lovely collection of images has ever, my favourites being the man holding the baby and the girl between the two adults on her journey on the bus. The noted sense of loss of these images and your concluding paragraph reminds me of a book by Roland Barthes - Camera Lucida (sp?)who stated how old pictures are always marked by death, that these people may no longer exist but makes you question what kind of life they ended up living, and that death marks every picture both old and new.

    Hope you had a lovely weekend!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  18. Been a lurker for a little while, but I love your blog! It's beautiful, and I love this post on vintage pix. Wonderful snaps! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  19. Those are great shots! I love these posts. Understand where your husband is coming from- but it's fascinating. Hope you had a lovely weekend!

    Xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  20. @ Ms. B, I agree, there is something about vintage photos in colour that make them seem even easier to relate to. But I love all old photos, no matter what colour pallet they were snapped in :D

    @ Andi & Carla, thank you for sharing the emotions that vintage photos bring to you, sweet dears. (Andi, I think your photos are absolutely "cherished".)

    @ Dustjacket Attic, thank you, the deer photo is so very neat, I agree, sweet heart!

    @ Tracey, awww, I'm delighted to know that I brightened you day! I bet you looked too cute for words swinging away in your peddle pushers :)

    @ Maggi, great point, I think that a lot of us have felt that way at some point, as though the world just morphed into colour a few short decades ago. Thankfully that isn't really the case though! :)

    @ Lemondrop Marie, you are so very sweet, thank you, darling girl!

    @ Keith, thank you, my friend. I did have a really lovely weekend, actually. I hope that same proved true for you, too!

    @ Karyn, thank you deeply, honey! I am utterly smitten with old photos, too! Nearly every day I have two or three (at least) various Flickr streams filled with vintage/antique photos open on my computer. Whenever I need to relax or vary my thoughts for a few moments I indulge in looking at some snapshots from the past.

    @ Amanda, I think similar thoughts, too, sweet heart. While reality says that not everyone ends up living a fairytale life, I like to think that everyone I see in vintage photos ended up having a marvelous, happy life.

    @ Life is good!, I absolutely agree, it would be such an amazing experience to go back in time to a world that was simpler. (Excellent point, I hope the world gets better, not worse, so that in fifty or sixty years people won't be as keen on the "2000s" as we are the 40s and 50s.)

    @ Gabriel Girl, thank you deeply, sweet soul. I agree, that photo is so engaging.

    @ Holly, awww, thank you deeply, honey. Tomorrow morning I'm going to share your comment with my husband, I know it will mean a lot to him.

    @ A red lipstick, I couldn't agree more, precious dear. I can pass hours at a time looking at vintage photos, engrossed in the world of the past, without even feeling like five minutes have gone by.

    @ Syd, wonderfully said, my dear, thank you very much for your lovely, insightful comment. (I would truly love to see any vintage candids that you have, please let me know if you end up posting some.)

    @ aramblingfancy, thank you very much! Ooohhh, I absolutely agree, cheerful green coats would do this world a lot of good! :D

    @ Pink Flower, I shall go search for that book at once, you have peaked my interest, darling. Thank you very much for your excellent thoughts on images from the past and for letting me know what it reminded you of.

    @ Simply Colette, thank you, sweet dear. I did have a wonderful weekend, I hope you and your DH did, too.

    Many thanks to each of you for your fantastic comments. I really appreciate the thoughts you shared about these vintage photos and the elements of life and passing that images from the past can stir in all of us.

    Wishing you all a truly superb week & start of autumn!
    ♥ Jessica

    ReplyDelete