Sepia Saturday 770 : Saturday 12 April 2025

 

It's the shoes, isn't it? You can look at some old photographs and know what is going on. Here we have a beach, two rather stylish ladies, and half a man. There's nothing odd about that. The fact that they are probably going out of their way to get skin cancer and lung cancer at the same time, given the historical context, there is nothing all that odd about that either. It's the shoes! What are they doing stood there? Whose are they? You can't beat a picture that gives you more questions than answers. If you have a questioning old photo, a questionable old photo, or any old photo at all you can share it here on Sepia Saturday by posting it and adding a link to the list below.

Take a look at what questions lie around the next bend in the road here on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 769 : 5th April 2025

 

What are you stood around for, looking as miserable as sin? A funeral perhaps? The final day of the trial for murder by poisoning of the family matriarch maybe? Surely it can't be a wedding, and if it is it must be a particularly unsuitable wedding. Perhaps grandfather is about to wed a 18 year old chorus girl and the rest of the family sees the family fortune dancing off into the wings. Who knows? And that is one of the delightful aspects of old, found photographs: they are like a single page torn out of a substantial work of fiction. Whatever the start or whatever the end of the story told by your old photographs, we would love to see them. So share an old photograph on or around Saturday 5th April and add a link to the list below. And take a look at the starting points of so many other old stories by glancing at our future Sepia Saturday prompts.

Sepia Saturday 768 : 29th March 2025

 

There are few things which can compare to the pleasures of sitting back, putting your feet up and reading a good back. Amongst the few, however, is the pleasures of sitting back, putting your feet up and sorting through a pile of old photographs. Just as a good novel guarantees that you are never sure where the plot is going to take you next, a good collection of old photographs means that you are likely to be taken to the most unexpected places and unexpected times. It is this pleasure, this uncertainty, that we celebrate here on Sepia Saturday. This is our weekly invitation to sit back, put your feet up, and embark on suck a journey of exploration .... on or around Saturday 29th March 2025 - and when you have done so to add a link to the list below. And then you can sit back, put your feet up and see what we have in store for April.

Sepia Saturday 767 : Saturday 22 March 2025

 

I can't really explain why, but there is something about the photograph that is our prompt image this week that reminds me of Bonnie and Clyde. Not that I'm suggesting that this charming group of ladies and girls are about to drive into the local town, guns in hand, and rob the local bank. Perhaps it is the car that sparks off a series of visual synapses that carry my mind to the film of Bonnie and Clyde. If nothing else it illustrates the ability of olfactory photographs to transport us to all sorts of different places - from a picnic site in the English countryside to the wild, Wild West. And here is your weekly opportunity to transport yourselves and your followers to unexpected places by submitting your Sepia Saturday submission on or around Saturday 22nd March 2025 and adding a link to the list below. 

Sepia Saturday 766 : Saturday 15 March 2025

 

In these uncertain times, what can you do other than have a good time? If old photographs celebrate anything, it is having a good time. In years gone by, people wouldn't waste precious film by taking endless photographs of their breakfast, or themselves looking moodily into a mirror. When people were laughing, having fun, going to the seaside, enjoying time with friends - that is when the camera would come out. Our theme image this week features my Auntie Annie left) and Uncle Harry (next to her with a grin as big as the English Channel) having a good time at the seaside. And you can have a good time here on Sepia Saturday by sharing your old photographs on or around Saturday 15th March 2025 and adding a link to the list below.

Sepia Saturday 765 : 8th March 2025

 

I'm not entirely sure what is going on in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt image. We have a young lady with what looks like a very fashionable 1920s hair style posing for a studio photograph - but what is going on with her hands? It almost looks like she was holding a mid twentieth century telephone but that has been removed from the image by some twenty-first century Photoshop magic! I suppose she could be brushing her hair, but it would appear to be a convoluted way of doing so. Let it remain a mystery and let us be content with the fact that you can't always find answers when you are exploring the fascinating world of old photographs. 

You can share your exploration by sharing a link to your old photographs on or around Saturday 8th March 2025 and adding a link to the list below. 

Sepia Saturday 764 : 1 March 2025

 

What could be better? A sweet that is food and warmth! You would never get away with advertising it like that today, but times change - even if our love of sweet and sticky things doesn't. This little advert is our Sepia (or Sweetia) Saturday theme this week and it can take you wherever you want - to tins of toffees, to old adverts, to children, or wherever you want to go in terms of your old photographs. Just unwrap your posts on or around Saturday 1st March 2025 and add a link to the list below. And take a look at the other selections we have in the box for the month of March:-

Sepia Saturday 763 : 22 February 2025

 

When I put this Sepia Saturday prompt together I went searching through my digital image archives and came up with this slightly musical image. I have called it "Singing Along" and credited it to "AB Collection", but I must confess that I am not sure where it is from and I don't seem to be able to find the original hard copy. In some ways this makes it even more suitable for Sepia Saturday - it is an orphan image looking for love. I'm not sure what the five of them were singing, but I hope that it was something suitably sepia. And all you need to do to join in with the chorus this week is to post your own old photograph on or around Saturday 22 February 2025 and add a link to the list below. And during the guitar solo, you might want top cast an eye on what is around the corner.

Sepia Saturday 762 15 February 2025

 

Not so much sitting on the fence, more standing on it. In case you are wondering, that's me - I am now so old I have become a Sepia Prompt. You can post old photos of fences, handsome young chaps, houses, or even me on or around Saturday 15th February 2025 and add a link to the list below. You can also post any old photo you want - we don't like rules here on Sepi Saturday, that's why we stand on the fence.

Sepia Saturday 761 : Saturday 8th February 2025

 

I'm back on my feet again - which is more than can be said about my father in this photograph taken sometime around 1930. He was doing a handstand on the seaside sands when some enterprising amateur photographer took a photograph. He probably knew that the photograph would become a perfect prompt image for Sepia Saturday ninety-five years later. So get out your old photographs - whether they be upside-down, inside-out or skew-whiff - and share them on or around Saturday 8th February 2025 by adding a link to the list below. And whilst you are standing on your head, take a look at what is around the corner here on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 760 (1st February 2025)

 

This is your weekly call for your Sepia Saturday contributions. Please post your posts and add a link to the list below on or around Saturday 1st February 2025. Advance notice of the next few calls will go up soon (I promise).

Sepia Saturday 759 : 25 January 2025

 

Sorry this call is late, but unlike the man stood healthily outside his front door in this weeks prompt image - I have not been fit to stand anywhere.  Ive spent the last few days in bed fighting some dreadful infection of which I won't bore you with the details. Hopefully normal service will return next week. Until then post your posts on or around Saturday 25 January and leave a link on the list below.

Sepia Saturday 758 : 18th January 2025

 

You can sometimes look at old photographs of young people and lose yourself in speculation over what became of them. So many of our old photographs fall into the "unknown" category and these present the greatest opportunity for speculation. Our prompt image this week is one such photograph: I have no idea who these four young men are, but you can look at each of the faces and imagine where life took them in the sixty or seventy years after the photograph was taken. Some look confident about what life might have in store for them, some look more dubious. Photographs have that unique ability to freeze existence, to halt the constant motion picture that is life. What questions do your old pictures ask? Share the questions and even some of the answer by taking part in Sepia Saturday. Post your posts on or around Saturday 18th January 2025 and leave a link on the list below.

And you can see what is next on Sepia Saturday by looking at our next two prompts.

Sepia Saturday 757 : 11 January 2025

 

My Sepia Saturday prompt this week celebrates that great institution - the school photograph. We all have these in our collection, whether they be our own school photos, those of previous generations, or those - such as the one above - featuring unknown faces in unknown places. Schools might be places where you learnt to do what you were told, in which case you might want to feature an old school photograph from your collection this week. And, school might have been the place where you learnt to go your own way and set your own rules for life, and in this case you might want to feature any old photo you want this week. Whatever you choose, post your post on or around Saturday 11th January 2025 and add a link to the list below. And you can take a look at what is on the curriculum for the rest of the term.

Sepia Saturday 756 : 4th January 2025

 

It's a new year and a new Sepia Saturday prompt - or, rather, an old Sepia Saturday prompt. The photograph must be well over a century old and is a studio portrait of an unknown couple. As you can see, I've added a touch of colour, or, should I say, some on-line spec of artificial intelligence has added a touch of colour. As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out as far as colourising old images is concerned - I can see arguments both for and against. There is nothing "real" about a black and white photograph - that particular palette was dictated by nothing other than the technological limitations of early photography. Equally, however, so many "colourisations" leave a distorted image that is neither true to reality nor true to  the original creation. Whatever your thoughts about realism in old photographs, you are invited to share your favourite old photograph of the week here on Sepia Saturday. Post your post on or around Saturday 4th January 2025 and add a link to the list below. And if you need themes for the future, here are the next two Sepia Saturday prompts to be thinking about.