Sometimes I fall in love with a photograph, not because the photographer was especially skilled or the subject matter extraordinary, but because it leaves me wondering about those captured in the image. I love the photograph below, it has a
Grapes of Wrath feel with a touch of
Whistler's Mother, found in the stern woman to the right. I assume the people in the picture were asked to pose, looking off in the distance or directly at the camera, like the
Bill the Butcher fellow in the middle. I'm a lover of popular culture and this photograph resonates with me because it has an undeniably cinematic feel, suggestive of a sepia-toned screen shot from a motion picture of Hollywood's Golden Age.
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VA 81-5.2 Holland's Hotel
"At Holland's Hotel: Topsail"
Item consists of Aunt Flo Pike, Laura Cousens, and
Mr. and Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Burt sitting on the front porch.
Woman at left is holding her knitting on her lap and
woman at right is seated in a rocking chair.
[between 1900 and 1924]
[Collection MG 374] Charles C. Cousens collection
Courtesy of: The Rooms Provincial Archives |
And then this one has puppies, what's not to love?
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IGA 1-173 Man wearing breeches holding three puppies
[19??]
Courtesy of: The Rooms Provincial Archives |
