Photo Realism

For five weeks now, I have been making a database of Virginia studio photographers, 1860-1920, for the Virginia Historical Society. As well as the photographer's name and address, I make notes about the "imprint," the pre-printed design on cardboard to which the photos are mounted. (For those into these details, we're talking cartes de visite and cabinet cards.)

Working on this reminds me of an American Studies professor I had at William & Mary whose refrain was, "there's a paper in this." Choose one:

• Social history: In Richmond, the Main St. studios were a nicer; probably, you made an appointment to sit for your portrait. The Broad St. studios, in contrast, tended to be more middle-brow, and permitted "walk-ins." If the family came into town twice a year, a spontaneous stop for a photo was possible the Davis Gallery, say.
  
  
• History of the business of photography: changing address or city; poses; claiming to be an "artistic photographer"; backdrops; changing imprints often v. maintaining the brand image for several years.
  
  
• Fashion: c. 1895 woman had to have an enormous comb sticking off the back of their heads; men's ties (bow or cravat or long; straight or crooked); a brief fad for key-shaped pins; etc.
  
  
• View of aging: if you wrote an age on a child's photo, 90% (or more) of the time, you wrote it in years and months -- and probably days. The oldest youngster to get this was "Age 16 years 1 m 21 days."
  
  

Yesterday, the most amazing thing happened. Let me back up. I began with a collection of over 700 card photos assembled by a former staff member. Once I entered those, I started slotting in data on images scattered about the museum collection. Yesterday, I went to add a photo from a popular studio, with a particular imprint. I had already entered one like it, so I inserted a new line under that entry and began describing the one in hand. I noted as I typed that I was about to give it a similar title - boy by chair. "Hunh, I wonder if it's the same chair." Needing a stretch, I went to the shelf for the big collection. It wasn't just the same chair -- it was the same child! One is addressed to Grand Ma and Grand Pa, the other to Auntie. Made from the same negative -- capturing the same moment -- apart for all those years (since Chirstmas 1885), and together again in my hand in 2004. Digitization doesn't give you that tiny thrill.

Capital City weather: 90s, 100% humidity