This week the theme photograph for Sepia Saturday features what appears to be an itinerant photographer and assistant on a beach somewhere.
The assistant is holding a Felix the Cat stuffed toy probably to catch and hold the attention of young subjects. The photographer stands behind his tripod mounted camera, ready to shoot a photograph. Apparently one of their subjects shot back and caught a business enterprise that is almost non-existent today.
Well, back on March 23, 2013, we did a page for Sepia Saturday of people with cameras, including some on tripods and some at the beach.
And I don't have anything with Felix the Cat.
So today, let's look at a few of the results of the efforts of some of those Itinerant Beach Photographers, a page of beach portraits.
Same Place, different guy ...
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THE KIDS 
Dee and the Business School 
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
Those 50's bathing suits take the cake - both women's AND men's, but especially the women's. My favorite photo, though, has to be that first one taken in 1935. I can't really tell if that's a little boy or girl? Which ever, their expression leaves no doubt about who's in charge: "This is my pose - take it or leave it!"
ReplyDeleteThanks Gail Perlee. You're right! And "Get on with it. You're interrupting some valuable play-time."
DeleteI like the one of the little boy posed just like the men.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristin. I think the photographer used the same bag of tricks over and over.
DeleteI like those 50s bathing suits!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jackie McGuinness. They certainly mark an era.
DeleteFine figures of men, women ...and children.
ReplyDeleteThanks Little Nell. I think we were all healthier back then.
DeleteA great set of beach postcards. Mar del Plata is in Argentina, right? Perhaps they still have beach photographers there, but I'm not sure we ever did in Australia. It's a nice idea though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo Featherston. Yes, Argentina. I got them all in one batch, I suspect from the photographer himself, about seven years ago. I'm not sure there are active itinerant photographers anywhere anymore. Too much litigation and competition from cell phones and the like.
DeleteThat first little kid is just a HOOT! Talk about "attitude," right?
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb Gould. Yes, she's certainly a "take charge" sort of girl.
DeleteThat's quite a collection. I don't think we ever had anything like that here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Postcardy. These are the only photographs I have ever seen from an itinerant photographer working at the beach. What's really rare is the photograph of the photographer in the Sepia Saturday prompt.
DeleteI really like these beach photos. Although Australia is surrounded by beaches, I don't think that they had beach photographers here as I don't have a single photo in the albums.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sharon. I think souvenir photographers work mostly in little shops now. They have backdrops and costumes and comic cut-out panels.
DeleteA fantastic collection! There is a cheerful charm about this kind of ephemeral holiday photos. People wanted a personalized memento to prove to the folks back home, and maybe even themselves, that they had been there, and the beach photographers provided the souvenir.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike Brubaker. I think you are right. Most of these have a happy flavor about them. It was a cheerful time when they were at the beach. The itinerant street photographers had it a little harder. They caught people in a rather candid way sometimes not at their best moment. They were in a hurry or preoccupied with their mission at the time, not ready for a photograph at all.
DeleteWhat a huge collection! I was never one to pose for photos at the beach.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jackie van Bergen. That is the difference between these itinerant beach photographs and the itinerant street photographs. These people are all posing for the shot. The street photographs are all candid.
DeleteFun collection. We don't seem to see people posing like that any more. Bring back the beach photographer.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob Scotney. Yes, I lament the obsolescence of the itinerant photographer also. There's just no feature that can't be duplicated with a cell phone or a pocket digital camera. Plus, with a cell phone the photograph can be sent to all the friends, instantly.
DeleteI have seen the small studios in tourist areas though, with a stock of props, backdrops and costumes. They can put the costumed customer on a set and have a digital print for them within minutes. That's something a cell phone can't do.
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