Thursday 10 March 2011
A Curious Grouping!
The more I look at this print taken from a glass plate negative, the more I am intrigued. It is a rural scene, perhaps a farmhouse? What I take to be a father and son are seated with a scruffy little dog sat on a knee. I find it slightly sinister to see that the two women are not looking directly at the camera. Their poses mirror each other with their eyes downcast. Why on earth would they do that. Click twice on the image and you can see clearly that the woman on the left is slyly looking towards the photographer. They could be twins, but the woman on the left looks much older. The photograph was taken in about 1905 in England. Are they members of a cult, or an extreme religious faith? What do you think?
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That is indeed a very strange photo. The only one who looks comfortable here is the young man to our right. The others are self-conscious, as though they have something to hide. I thought the women dressing identically was odd, too, as though they were servants. There is also a sense of hard times: they look like they haven't been well-fed. The sly look of the young woman reminds me of the novel The Photograph by Penelope Lively in which a photo reveals a man and woman secretly holding hands...
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