Friday, May 13, 2011

Photo Number 532

This is one weird photo.  I purchased it in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  It is a CdV.
One weird photo CdV DL Antiques
I could not figure out the purpose of this photo..so I would appreciate your opinion.  I will guess that this was taken sometime around 1870 to 1880.  Is it a photograph in front of another photograph?  What is up with the white hankie?

Thanks for stopping by, do come again:)  

12 comments:

  1. That is without a doubt one of the funniest portraits I've ever seen. I don't care what it means, I'm just so glad you found it!

    Wasn't there some sort of game where guys sat in a circle in chairs and a girl would walk around behind it and then drop a hankie behind the boy she was interested in? Or is my mind remembering something that never existed?

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  2. That is strange indeed! Almost like they had photoshop way back when! I think that maybe he is her husband that may have passed away and it is a remembrance sort of picture. The hanky represents how sad she is? Who knows?? HAHA Good photo though Connie!

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  3. As many swinging bachelors have a signal to their roommates(necktie around the outside doorknob)to warn of hot action and do not disturb under any circumstances, Nell and Jacob had a similar understanding. Nell simply held up her white hanky to indicate her willingness to surrender to Jacob.

    Ah those cherished rituals.

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  4. I am really creeped out by this one! I'd like to know the story behind it too and hopefully it would make more sense. He is looking at her funny out of the corner of his eye. She doesn't look happy at all. Any number of funny captions one could come up with for this photo, but I'd best not go there. LOL

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  5. I don't know about the hankie but I have heard/read that they would sometimes include an image of a person who had passed or simply couldn't be present for a photo. Maybe her husband had passed and she didn't have any photos showing both of them together but wanted one. (or the other way around)

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  6. Waving goodbye to a lost husband, vanishing in the background?

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  7. Clearly, they had a very early version of Photoshop and were composing an image that portrayed an extra-marital affair to expose in The Territorial Enquirer. Or maybe the 2nd wife is obstructing the first wife. Who knows? Thanks for sharing this - I can't figure it out either!

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  8. I'm with the commenters who think this is some kind of memorial portraiture, trying to express a widow's continuing emotional communion with her dead husband. Rather crudely done, but these look like ordinary folks; she had to rely on the skills of a local photographer rather than the masters. You can see a couple similar amalgams here: http://www.suite101.com/content/victorian-spirit-photography-a205651 -- scroll down to the bottom of the page for Houdini showing a book to Lincoln's "ghost." (That was just a quick search I did, there are probably lots of similar examples out there.)

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  9. I'm with those who think this is some kind of memorial photo. My guess is that the husband died and the wife wanted to have a couple photo. Not being able to take one, she just cut herself out and pasted her photo onto his. I've actually seen this done on many other pictures - it's no wonder Photoshop was invented.

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  10. It was very common for women to hold a hanky or fan, etc. This photo looks like two photos combined, the man's portrait having been done at an earlier age. I had a photo on my site last week that was clearly a "cut out" of another photo, and I would say that your photo is a similar attempt. Unfortunately, the person who made the combined image had no sense of scale.

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  11. I believe it to be a memorial photo also. The kerchief a symbol of death and the gentleman added into the photo to show he is passed.

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  12. I agree that this is likely a memorial. I find it interesting that his hand is in his coat and the other seems to be in a pocket. Makes me wonder if he was a leper or something. And his buttons on the fly seems to have gaposis.

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Hi, Thanks for the comments, your input on these old photos is appreciated! English only please! All comments will be moderated! Connie