Sepia Saturday Week 28

I am full of apologies tonight. My first is that this call is going up so early - the sun has hardly set on Sepia Saturday 27 and here I am pestering you to take part in Sepia Saturday 28 (19 June 2010). My second apology is that I will not be able to take part in Sepia 28 myself because - as I mentioned last week - we hit the road first thing tomorrow morning and we will not be back until the 20th June. And because I have been so busy trying to remember what I need to pack, my third apology is that I have not had time to do my normal tour of Sepia posts. On my return I will visit all the blogs and catch up on the Sepia 27 and Sepia 28 posts.

But I have managed to have a quick look at quite a few of the Sepia 27 posts and I have to say what a pleasure it is to welcome new members to our little group. Reading first-time Sepia poster, Natasha, - see Today's Gift - I was struck by the way we all delight in the same mysteries, the same types of observations, and the same unanswered questions. They are all part of the joy of old photographs, and Natasha's investigation of the photograph of the woman who is probably her Great Grandfathers' sister sums up the process so very well. Our usual warm welcome to new members joining in with Sepia 28 and welcome back to all our old friends. New or old, all you need do is to link your Sepia 28 post using the Linky List below. I look forward to seeing all your posts on my return home.

Sepia Saturday Week 27

I always find when browsing through everyone's Sepia Saturday posts that my eye gets caught by a picture for no other reason than it is a great picture. It is not that it is old (which it usually is), nor is it that it is accompanied by a fascinating explanation (which it invariably is), it is just that it is the kind of picture that proclaims (in bold upper case) LOOK AT ME. One of my oldest blogging friends, Larry Burgess, had such a picture of his Uncle Kenny on his post last week, a picture which makes you want to find out more about Kenny, who Larry quite rightly says, looks so cool in this shot. Larry is one of the Sepia group who has set up his own blog devoted to his Sepia Saturday posts - Larry's Sepia Saturday - if you've not seen it yet, it is well worth a visit.

I will be away most of next week, so be warned, I will be putting up the call for Sepia Saturday 28 before the sun has set on Sepia Saturday 27 (well, if you live in the Tonga Islands that is). But whenever the call notice goes up, it says the same thing : come and join us at Sepia Saturday and bring along your images that proclaim "LOOK AT ME".

Sepia Saturday Week 26

I have often noted how our American posts on Sepia Saturday frequently tell the story of great population movements. Not satisfied with migrating from the Old World to the New World, within a generation or so, families will load their possessions into covered wagons or old Model T's and move from Virginia to Ohio, Ohio, to Kansas, and then Kansas to California with a courage and determination that can only be admired. This contrasts with the situation here in Britain where, on a fine day, I can comfortably walk from where I live now to where my great-great grandfather Joseph Burnett was born over two hundred years ago. But such stereotypes are always flawed, as I was reminded by the lovely post by Cindy on last weeks' Sepia Saturday. She used a photograph of her great grandparents sat outside the "home place" land which is still in the family today. The old house may be being torn down but the land remains and it is the land - and these old photographs of ours - that soak up the memories.

We will be having another round of memories this week on Sepia Saturday Week 26. Sign up on the Linky List below and share your images and your memories.

Sepia Saturday Week 25

IT is often said that old photographs are a window to the past. This is of course true, they help us to get a feel of past times like no other medium. But just as you can sit and gaze through a window and see more and more the longer you look, these old photographs can provide layer after layer of hidden information. And it often is the process of scanning, enlarging and preparing for publication that pulls the shades aside and allows you to see so much more. Sepia Saturday blogger Nancy (My Ancestors And Me) alluded to this process in her excellent post last week ("Two Bits"). She spoke of how she eventually was able to date the photograph of her barber grandfather by the date showing in the calendar in the background (if you haven't read Nancy's post, read it for the superb quality of the writing just as much as for the photographic investigation).  

Information in the foreground, information in the background - whatever the old photograph, it is welcome on the Sepia Saturday Blog. Sepia Saturday 25 will be on Saturday 29th May  2010. Post your post and sign up on the Linky List below.

Sepia Saturday Week 24

In his excellent Sepia Saturday post last week, CrazyasaCoolfox spoke of tangible history. He was referring to a small corner chair which featured in a couple of old family pictures and which still exists within the family. Such objects that are handed down are tangible history : physical things that provide a direct link to the past. The pictures we feature in our Sepia Saturday posts are also examples of tangible history : objects that were once lovingly handled by distant generations and carefully saved and passed down from one generation to the next. They were saved and shared because it was felt that they said something important. They recorded times of joy or triumph and occasionally times of sadness and loss. The fact that we can still share these emotions today is witness to the tangible nature of photographs as historical conduits. To see what tangible history will be shared this week take a look at the people who are participating in Sepia Saturday Week 24 (Saturday 22 May 2010). To join in the fun simple put a post together based on an old photograph and sign up to the Link List below.

Sepia Saturday Week 23

The "sepia" in Sepia Saturday is a general evocation rather than a defining classification. When Kat and I had the idea for Sepia Saturday we wanted a site where old photographs of whatever vintage provided the prompt for memories and musings. The word "sepia" was redolent of the photographic past in the same way that we hoped the photographs featured by all the many contributors would be redolent of a spread of decades and a spread of cultures. I always find that some images can proclaim a particular time in the same way that popular music can. As I look at the magnificent mix of images featured by all the Sepia Saturday contributors, I sometimes have an  imagined soundtrack playing along. With some pictures you would have the plucking of a pioneer banjo, with others the excitement of an early jazz band.  But with the wonderful pictures featured by Anita of the negativespace blog over the last couple of weeks it is the sound of Sinatra and the Billy May Orchestra. The photographs have the 1950s running through them : the sophistication, the modernism, the hope and the sheer love of post-war life.

You can keep my imaginary soundtrack playing for another week by signing up for Sepia Saturday 23 which will take place on Saturday 15th May 2010. All you have to do is to put up your post and then link by using the following Linky List.

Sepia Saturday Week 22

We are up to Week 22 of Sepia Saturday and, although by now a number of patterns have emerged, the delight of S-S remains the diversity of approach. Some people post long carefully researched pieces, others short, snappy insights. Some tell of people, others tell of houses or even bridges. Some limit themselves to just one photograph, some use a whole series of photographs to tell a story. A fine example of using a series of photographs to tell the story of a person was the post last week by Sean Bentley in his Eff-Stop Local Blog. Posts of this kind are a delight, it is like paging through an old family album.

Whether you tell it long or short, fat or thin, up or down, tell it on Week 22 of Sepia Saturday which will be on Saturday 8th May 2010. All you have to do is to link your post via the Linky List below (either before or after the event) and the rest - as they say - is history.