Feature - The Whale Got Away

When a photograph is abandoned or lost, some of the story within it goes too; some, not all. A photograph travels through time stuck in the pages of a book or at the bottom of a shoebox, in a wrinkled old wallet or carefully stuck to the black pages of an old album. When it arrives in our time, it is without provenance. While we must guess at facts like the actual date of the photograph or the model of camera or the location, there is often a rich story left in the image itself.

For a few weeks on Fridays, LOST GALLERY will examine a photograph or two, let them tell their own story.

Today we have a snapshot of two children at play.

It’s still morning on a grey day. The family’s up and fed. Dad’s already in the field. Mom has the wash on the line and a stiff breeze is doing its work.

The children are engrossed in an adventure on the high seas. Sitting in a wheel barrow, their “’tend-like” boat, with two of dad’s old fishing rods, they cast their invisible lines for the sun perch and catfish that swim in their aquamarine imaginations.

Conversing as if they were acres apart, they navigate the high seas or Johnson’s pond. Their loud play helps Mom keep track of them.

Mom watches for a moment and then gets dad’s camera from the closet shelf. The light isn’t good but the old box camera doesn’t care anyway. Snap.

Now, decades later we can’t help admiring these two energetic children, inventing a world of their own, challenging and harmonizing, exercising their minds and muscles in pursuit of their day.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"