I'll wish you a Happy Halloween by sharing a pumpkin that my father carved 56 years ago. At that time, we lived in a bungalow, in a small Virgina town.
My maternal grandfather, who was never without his Zeiss Ikon camera, took the photo. He documented virtually every aspect of our 1950s life, for which I am now very grateful.
My grandfather was an extremely meticulous person, and the back of every photo bears a series of numbers, sometimes in rows and sometimes in columns, as though they're waiting to be added up.
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| photo from Etsy |
That was back in the day when Kodak film came in metal containers like the ones above, and my grandfather neatly stored film negatives in hundreds of such containers, in stacked cooking pans. My guess is that he printed three copies of the 22nd negative, from the 514th container of film. The other numbers probably related to his adjustments in the darkroom. That sure is a far cry from digital photos, thumb drives and iPhoto!
Wishing you a Happy Halloween!
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1957 was a very good year.
ReplyDeleteIt was a happy time for me.
Deletewhat an amazing pumpkin and great archive to have at your disposal! I hope you'll share more of his photos with us.
ReplyDeleteHi, Stefan,
DeleteMy grandfather always printed his images on thick matte paper, so they have a finish that one would associate with museum quality. I scanned this image in full color to retain the warm finish his photographs always had.
P. S. You're right — I should share more of his work in a future posting!
DeleteDear Mark, I agree, we would like for you to share more of your Grandfather's photographs. What a goldmine of recorded history you have!
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, that is a very fine pumpkin carving your Father made.
Happy Halloween to you too.
Dear Gina,
DeleteAs I mentioned in a posting last year, my other grandfather worked for Kodak beginning in 1910, so our family is better archived than most!
For some reason, the pumpkin-carving always fell to my father, perhaps because he was so good at it.
Hello Mark, We can see where you get at least some of your talent. My family never got beyond the square-circle-triangle level of pumpkin carving.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween, Jim
Hello, Jim, and thanks for your generous comment.
DeleteI distinctly remember this pumpkin as it looked when lit. It was pretty ghoulish!
Hello hello Mark!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post-- your father's pumpkin is fantastic, as is your grandfather's pumpkin portrait! I agree with Jim-- it seems as though the art genes have been handed down most successfully in your family... I love the images of the reverse of the photo and the film cans, which remind me of my Dad's photography studio back in the old days. I miss film and beautiful photo paper...!
I've been enjoying your other recent posts via my phone, which makes commenting nearly impossible... But thank you for each and every one-- so wonderful!!!!
Warm regards,
Erika
Dear Erika,
DeleteThanks so much for your comment! Photography was my grandfather's greatest pleasure in retirement, aside from his grandchildren, and in his own darkroom he would often make beautiful enlargements. Some of my earliest memories are of going to the National Gallery of Art with him while he shot the artwork there. Today's comments have inspired me to do a future posting of more of his work.
Dear Mark - what a great carving by your father. A pumpkin with character - I bet it looked fantastic when it was lit up. It is both jolly and ghoulish.
ReplyDeleteYes, please do show some more of your grandfather's photos.
Dear Rosemary,
DeleteI will absolutely show more of my grandfather's photos, next month. Thanks for asking!
I would have never guessed that photo was from 1957. Not only is it far superior to the blurry black and whites I've seen in my mother's archives (a few drawers of her antique spool cabinet), the carving job seems like something you'd see in the present day magazine. I even thought it was one of those trendy blue pumpkins.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween, Mark!
Hi, Steve,
DeleteThanks for complimenting both my father and grandfather. My grandfather used a Zeiss Ikon, which was a very good camera, and he developed his own film. You might remember that the most popular camera of your mother's day was a Kodak Brownie, and with that camera, you always sent the film back to Kodak to be developed. While Kodak made many good cameras, the photographs from the Brownies tended to be poor.
Fabulous pumpkin and lucky for you your grandfather was so meticulous. I have boxes of photos where I'm trying to figure out who's who !
ReplyDeleteHi, Clara,
DeleteI didn't mention it, but I come from a family of scrapbookers. My mother would set time aside — only about twice a year or so — and paste and label. My brother and sister-in-law now have about four dozen scrapbooks that range from the late 1800s to the present, and looking up something that happened in any particular time period is a pretty quick process.