Sepia Saturday 779 : 14th June 2025

 

"Man With A Chair" is a familiar caption for all collectors of old photographs. If old photographs are anything to go by, the average man - and indeed woman - of the first part of the twentieth century did little else but stand next to a chair and have their photograph taken. There are reasons, of course, for the use of chairs as props in early photographs: shutter speeds were slow and subjects had to keep still for a long time. So this week get out your men standing, your women standing and even your chairs standing. Whatever is standing, post you post on or around Saturday 14th June 2025 and add a link to the list below. And whilst you are standing about, take a look at what is next on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 778 : Saturday 7th June 2025

 

For those who like themes, there are plenty of themes in this week's Sepia Saturday image. There are swans, rivers, boats and food. Whatever olkf photograph you are wanting to share this week will probably fit into one of those categories. So share your old images on or around Saturday 7th June 2025 and add a link to the list below. And we have themes a-plenty this week because we not only have the future themes for the rest of June, there is the July collection as well.

Sepia Saturday 777 : Saturday 31 May 2025

 

Railways, photography, the motor car, film and radio: some of the key inventions of the last two hundred years that have done so much to shape the world we live in now. This week, on Sepia Saturday, we celebrate two of these - photography and radio. Our theme image shows a photograph from eighty years ago of a man using a radio transmitter. All you need to do is to imagine that he is inviting you to share your hold photographs on Sepia Saturday by posting a post on or around Saturday 31 May 2025 and add a link to the list below. After which you can look forward rather than looking back - and see what is to come on Sepia Saturday over the next few weeks.

Sepia Saturday 776 : 24 May 2025

 

Families and photographs go together like ... well like family photographs! Whilst the very first photographs may have been of grainy castle walls or faded chateau gardens, it didn't take the humble camera long to focus in on its natural subject matter - the family. This Edwardian couple with their young child - I neither know who they are or why I happen to have their photograph in my collection - is just one of hundreds of millions of family photographs that have been taken over the last 175 years. This week on Sepia Saturday is your opportunity to share your favourite family photographs by posting a post and then adding a link to the list below. And whilst you are waiting for the family to gather, you might want to take a look at what is next on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 775 - Saturday 17th May 2025

 

By the time you read this I will be strolling down the promenade of a classic English seaside resort. It is therefore quite apt that this week's Sepia Saturday Call image is a group of people strolling down the promenade of a classic English seaside resort. You can join them, and you can join us, by sharing your old photographs this weekend - either your holiday snaps or your studio portraits, your family groups or your Aunty Bessie's pet cat. Just post your post on or around Saturday 17th May 2025 and add a link to the list below. And take a moment or two to see what lies ahead here on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 774 : Saturday 10th May 2025

 

For the seven hundredth and seventy-fourth week of Sepia Saturday we have a look, and it is the look of the actress Arline Judge in a still from the 1936 film "Valiant Is The Word For Carrie". You probably don't remember the film and the plot is far too complicated to explain here, but all we are interested in at the moment is that look. It is what makes the photograph memorable, and that is the case with so many of the old photographs we treasure. We invite you to share your look - or indeed any of your old photographs - on or around Saturday 10th May 2025 and add a link to the list below. Once you have done that, you can take a look at what is to come on Sepia Saturday over the next couple of months.

Sepia Saturday 773 : Saturday 3rd May 2025

 

Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week looks at that most familiar item of household furnishing - the desk. Whether covered with books or papers, photographs or paintings, typewriters or computers; the desk is always with us. I know that these days people are enticed by laptops and palmtops and tablets you can curl up on an easy chair with, but for me you can't beat the sensible solidity of a desk. My image for Sepia Saturday 773 - post your posts on or around Saturday 3rd May 2025 and add a link to the list below - is a photograph of my desk from more than fifty years ago. For younger readers I should point out that the strange machine is in fact a typewriter! If you want to follow the theme you can feature desks or typewriters, books or papers - or you can ignore the theme all together. Just share an old image and what it means to you. 

Sepia Saturday 772 : Saturday 26th April 2025

 

Here we are again - at the seaside. Old photographs and the seaside seem to go together like .... bread and butter or fish and chips or sand and shingle or sea salt and sunburn. We invite you to share your old photographs here on Sepia Saturday by sharing a photo and the adding a link to the list below on or around Saturday 26th April 2025. And here is what lies ahead for the next couple of months on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 771 : 19th April 2025

 

Sometimes you can spend too much time looking through a camera lens and consequently forget to put up the Sepia Saturday prompt image! My apologies to you all. Once you have looked through the viewfinder of history, why not post whatever you see and add a link to the list below on or around Saturday 19th April 2025. 

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.