Sepia Saturday 575 : 19 June 2021

 

Speeding our alphabetical way through the Flickr Commons Photo Archives we reach the letter K and the photographic archives of Keene Public Library. What better way to arrive in Keene, New Hampshire than on a vintage Harley-Davison motorbike. Whether you are balanced precariously on a bike or sat comfortably in a sidecar, you can look out for potential prompts in this week's theme image. Once you have found them, add a photo to a post, add the post to the list, and post on or around Saturday 19th June 2021. It's as easy as that.

And so that at the same time you can keep an eye on the road ahead, here are the next two theme images:-

Sepia Saturday 574 : 12 June 2021

 

We are taking a leisurely stroll through the photographic archives available via the Flickr Commons initiative, and having reached the letter J we have called in on the Jewish Women's Archives. This has provided us with a theme image full of possibilities whether it be radio stations, phone calls, wartime brides or floral ties. As usual, all you have to do is to feature an old photograph of your own, and link your post to the list below on or around Saturday 12 June 2021.

Here are the next two theme images for you to think about.

Sepia Saturday 573 : 5 June 2021

 

A soldier in uniform, looking carefree, a smile on his face, having a final photograph taken before an inevitable descent into hell. We have a name but we don't know the story: perhaps he lived, perhaps he died; almost certainly there will have been scars, both mental and physical. Old photographs are like that - a moment frozen in time and isolated from the joy and the misery, the success and the failure which is life. Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week comes from the Imperial War Museum collection on Flickr Commons. You can follow the theme or ignore the them, the choice is yours. In a wider sense the theme is - as it is very week - frozen moments in lost lives and all our Sepia Saturday posts follow in those footsteps. Simply post your post on or around Saturday 5th June 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Here are the next two theme images - J and K in our alphabetical tour of the Archives - to help you plan your future Sepia Saturday posts.

Sepia Saturday 572 : 29 May 2021

 

Our tour of the archives reaches the letter H and where better to look than the photographic archives of the Museum of Hartlepool. Our theme image this week features a 1920s print entitled "Remaining Belongings"which shows a man and a boy rescuing what remains of their household effects following the Great Timber Yard Fire of 1922. They carry a mattress, a couple of chairs and two framed photographs: emphasising, if ever it needed emphasising for us Sepians, the importance of the saved image. If a fire was to break out up the street now, I would abandon the chair, but quickly disconnect the hard drive with all my collected digital images. What image would you save if fire was heading down the street? Whether it's a saved image, a mattress, or a couple of old chairs, post your post on or around Saturday 29th May 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Here is what you might like to save for the next Sepia Saturday prompt.

Sepia Saturday 571 : 22 May 2021

 

We are walking down a sepia street this Sepia Saturday whilst celebrating the Getty Research Institute in our alphabetical tour through the great photo archives of the world. The Institute - an international centre for the study of visual culture based in Los Angeles - has a diverse collection of visual resources and a wide range of virtual and real exhibitions and conferences. More information about the Institute can be found on their WEBSITE. As usual, we invite your contributions that are prompted by this week's theme image, based on whatever interpretation of the image you care to make. Just post your post on or around Saturday 22 May 2021 and add a link to the list below.

After G comes H (in the guise of the Museum of Hartlepool) and that is quickly followed by I (the Imperial War Museum). Here is a preview of the next two theme images.

Sepia Saturday 570 : 15 May 2021

 

An unknown man with a shadow - it could be the title of a 1930s photograph or a philosophical treatise on the state of humanity. You will be glad to learn that it is the former and that it is also our theme image for Sepia Saturday 570. As you may recall, we are taking an alphabetical trawl through the great photo archives of the world, and our theme image this week comes from the Norwegian archives - Fylkesarkivet Vestland. As always, you can do with the theme what you will - just do it on or around Saturday 15th May 2021 and add a link to your post to the Linky List below,

Continuing through our archival alphabet, here is what lies ahead.

Sepia Saturday 569 : 8th May 2021

 

Man in a raincoat stood outside a tent - now there is a Sepia Saturday prompt for you. You can go with people standing, raincoats, tents .... or you could go with potential assassins! This is Lewis Payne Powell who was part of the group - under the leadership of John Wilkes Booth - who plotted to assassinate the President, Vice President and Secretary of State of the USA in 1865. If you don't have any assassins in your family archives, you might want to share whichever old photograph this theme image makes you think of. Just post a post on or around Saturday 8th May 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Whilst you are waiting for the plot to thicken, you might want to take a look at what lies ahead for Sepia Saturday participants.

Sepia Saturday 568 : 1 May 2021

 

D is for the Deseronto Archives in Canada in our A to Z of old photograph archives on Flickr Commons. And I have chosen one of their images which is certain to please one of our longest-running Sepia Saturday contributors - the incomparable Mike Brubaker. Ever since the dawn of Sepia Saturday - which wasn't that long after the dawn of photography itself - Mike has been contributing memorable blog posts based on his fabulous collection of old images of bands and musicians. This week Sepia Saturday is dedicated to you Mike and your favourite subject. So the challenge to the rest of us is to find old images that match the theme in one way or another. When you have found one, include it in a post and post the post on or around Saturday 1 May 2021, and add a link to the list below. For you, Mike, it is no great challenge to come up with a fascinating post featuring old photographs of musicians - you have been doing it for many years now. We look forward to seeing what you will come up with this week.

Here is what lies ahead next week. I will add the theme image for Sepia Saturday 570 as soon as I get my act together.

Sepia Saturday 567 : Saturday 24 April 2021

 

Our alphabetical canter through the photographic archives represented by the Flickr Commons initiative has reached the letter C, and we have picked a winner with this 1914 photograph of Lord Loris (that's the name of the house, not the rider) who won Le Grand Steeple Chase De Paris in that year. You don't have to place all your money on just one bet, of course, you can go with horses, races, or even the letter C. Alternatively, you can ignore all racing clues and go fishing instead. just share an old photo and a few new words on or around Saturday 24th April 2021, and add a link to the list below.

The one enjoyable thing about this tour through the archives is the way you can travel freely - even in this age of international lockdown. After Caen in Normandy, France, we gallop off to Deseronto in Canada, before marching south to George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, New York State. And Sepia Saturday will be paying all the transport costs for you! Now, that's a sure bet if ever I've seen one.

Sepia Saturday 566 : 17 April 2021

 

We have arrived at B in our tour of the various archive collections forming part of the Flickr Commons initiative ..., and we have arrived in Edvard Grieg's front room. It is one of those overcrowded Victorian rooms and therefore there are prompts galore - chairs, pianos, music, paintings, and - in the nicest possible meaning of the word - busts. All you need to do is to choose whichever prompt you want - or ignore all possible prompts - and post a post featuring an old photograph on or around Saturday 17 April 2021. Then just add a link to the list below and sit back and a nice piano concerto or two.

Whilst you are listening, you might want to have a look and see what lies around the Sepia corner.

Sepia Saturday 565 : 10 April 2021

 

Sepia Saturday could never have survived for all these years without that magnificent resource, Flickr Commons. At a time when all and sundry want to stick copyright notices on things they have not themselves created, Flickr Commons is a shining beacon for sharing our photographic heritage. Archives that are part of the Commons initiative agree that their images can be shared by anyone, and this means that for over a decade I have been able to incorporate them into most of our weekly theme prompts.  So, for the next few months I am celebrating the Flickr Commons initiative by taking an alphabetical tour of its participating institutions. We start with the Provincial Archives of ALBERTA and a photograph from 1930 of the Ladies Curling Club of Olds, Alberta. As always, you can follow the theme, interpret the theme, turn it on its head ... or ignore it altogether: simply post an old photo and add a link to the list below on or around Saturday 10th April 2021.

Here are our next two theme images for you to be having a think about:-

BERGEN

CAEN

Sepia Saturday 564 : 3 April 2021

 

This is the last theme based on one of my old photographs - for a while, at least - and suitably enough it is a photograph of a works outing to the seaside resort of Blackpool. I am not sure if any of my wife's relatives are featured in this photograph, but that doesn't matter because we are this week celebrating relatives, work, outings and seaside resorts. We can be celebrating anything else you want to celebrate: this, after all, is Sepia Saturday where rules are not welcome. Just feature an old photograph, add a few well chosen words, post it in a post, and add a link to the list below .... on or around Saturday 3 April 2021.

Next week I will be starting an alphabetical tour through all the wonderful picture archives that belong to the Flickr Commons initiative.  Here are the first two theme images of this new series:-

ALBERTA

BERGEN

Sepia Saturday 563 : 27 March 2021

I still seem to be stuck with groups, but trust me, these are nearly at an end. Our theme image this week has a group posing in front of a fort. The fort in question is Fort Perch Rock which sounds as if it should be somewhere in the Wild West - and is in fact just off the not-very-wild west coast of England in the seaside town of New Brighton. As a theme prompt you can do what you want with it: you can have forts, groups, sea, sand, hats, stones ... or even grandfathers (that's mine on the left!). Whatever you do with it, do it on or around Saturday 27th March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Our next two theme images are still full of people, but lots of other things as well. Here they are so you can start planning your next Sepia Saturday posts.

Sepia Saturday 562 : 20th March 2021

 

Your number is up! Yes, we have graduated from a few to a lot, from three men on a boat to a crowd at a football match. The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot an entire Scottish bagpipe band in this theme photograph along with the usual supply of hats and belted coats. There is no sign of a football, so it might be a rugby match, a polo match, a hurling match, or the world final of the tiddlywinks championships. If you are game for a go, then have a go: just post your post on or around Saturday 20th March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

Two more group shoots lay ahead before I think up some new themes, so you might want to be keeping these in mind for the next couple of weeks. Then we will move onto something different, I promise!

Sepia Saturday 561 : Saturday 13 March 2021

 

It's a classic! Three men in a boat - or in this case three men at the bow of a boat. It's not only a good read, it's an opportunity to share your old photographs of men in boats, women in boats, boats, three or coils of old rope. And because this is Sepia Saturday and we have the widest interpretation of themes to be found on the entire internet, it will allow you to share any old photo you like. So post your post on or around Saturday 13 March 2021 and add a link to the list below.

I still seem to be fixated with groups of people so here are another two themes for you to be thinking about.

Sepia Saturday 560 : Saturday 6th March 2021

 

You have a choice of two for your theme image for Sepia Saturday 560: you can have the young lad on the left or the young lad on the right. You can have scholars or sailors, suits or uniforms, tall or small, smiles or frowns. And this being Sepia Saturday, you can always ignore the silly theme image chosen by chap who does this, and go with your own choice of themes. All that we ask you to do is to post an old image on or around Saturday 6th March 2021 and add a link to it on the list below. It's as simple as one and one makes two.

And talking of two, here are another two .... themes for future Sepia Saturdays for you to think about. Toodle Loo!

Sepia Saturday 559 : 27 February 2021

 

The sepia alphabet is fading into the distance, thank goodness, and that means our Sepia Saturday themes have been released from the regimentation of artificial constraints. Our theme images can go where they want, take wings and sail away on a boat. So here we are with four girls on a boat. They are looking forward to seeing all the submissions to Sepia Saturday 559 which will be posted on or around Saturday 27th February 2021. If you have a submission you wish them to see, add a link to the post in the list below.

And what better way to follow four girls than with two boys and then three men. Here's what lies ahead.

Sepia Saturday 558 : 20 February 2021

 

Let's take a long look at where we have been over the last six months. To do that we will need a good zoom lens, and luckily enough, along comes the Antarctic explorer Herbert George Ponting with his telephoto apparatus. And what we discover is that the Sepia Saturday alphabet has reached the end of the road - so here we are at the letter Z. You can go to the zoo or zip up your trousers, zap the alien invader or take a trip around the zodiac. The choose, as always, is yours - whatever you decide upon, post it in a post, post the post on or around Saturday 20th February, and post a link to the list below.

After letters where can we go other than to numbers. So far we have a four and a two - who knows where this sum might take us.