This week the Sepia Saturday suggestion is a minimalist photograph of a girl in a row boat, rowing herself to the other side of the lake, to the other side of the day, to the end of time. Who knows?
Sitting alone in a rowboat is a bit of a metaphor for life itself, perhaps. One accepts a role in life and uses one's own abilities and the tools at hand to achieve whatever is necessary.
The Girl-in-a-Rowboat theme is one that LOST GALLERY collected before, a couple years ago. And we did a Sepia Saturday post about "People on Boats" ending with Marvin missing the boat altogether.
Actually, it isn't the rowboat that is the outstanding feature of the snap. It is the atmosphere of the photograph that tugs the most. It's contemplative, determined, confident. And maybe it's the isolation; perhaps it's even a bit lonely.
LOST GALLERY has photographs that prompt such a mood. Let's look at some of them.
The young girl in this photo has a story. She can’t tell you the story because she is probably more than a hundred years old today and at the time of this photograph, her life expectancy was less than fifty years.
Items from LOST GALLERY seldom get much restoration as the fading, cracks and spots are part of their charm and their story of the journey to our time. But this one asked for some clarity. Removing the yellow and bumping the contrast just a little produced these details. No repairs were made.
Look at the face. Is it sad? Yes. It is a brave face but not confident. Her portrait interrupts something else going on in her life. She is not well. Actually, there are impressions of loneliness, uncertainty, resignation. Or maybe she is just a bit apprehensive, cautious about the photographer who just said, “Hold very still.”
The photographer handed her a book to hold in the pose. She holds it stiffly instead of letting it rest on her lap. She looks as if she is handing it back. She can’t read. Many women were not allowed to be educated a hundred years ago. It was not considered useful.
Her pose is arranged to clearly show her ring finger. You’d think she was too young to be married but then, we must remember how short life was a hundred years ago. She even looks pregnant. But maybe not. Perhaps it is a spinal curvature. She is leaning forward and to her right. Her hips seem to be off center to her left. Her hair hangs in curls across her high forehead. Her gaze seems to be fixed on us.
Perhaps she was just dreaming: Dreaming of wearing clothing that suited her own taste and mood, dreaming of an education, of having a respected profession and earning her own income, actually choosing whether she wanted children or not, actually living to see grandchildren, actually being able to vote, actually deciding her own destiny.
Perhaps she was dreaming.
Now here are four favorites from
the LOST GALLERY collection.
Here is a mood.
Now shift back to the many contributions at the Sepia Saturday home page.
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