Gems include a high school graduation portrait of a teenager too vain to wear his thick black glasses; a highchair occupied by a boy with chocolate birthday cake smeared across his face; a girl holding a purple ribbon earned in a 4-H project; and another at play in a sea of dandelions.
The photos are viewed with wishes that there had been more time for baiting a hook, for playground swings and longer bicycle rides. Regrets, it has been said, are the devil’s tool. In some circles, photographs are put in the same category.
Superstition and tradition holds that photos of children shouldn’t be allowed because their souls are fragile and easily damaged when captured via camera. Conservative Amish communities detest posed close-ups because the subject’s energy is dissipated, and their holiness stained by boastfulness.
Crazy Horse – the Lakota military leader of the Oglala who wiped out Custer’s army and who vowed never to allow sacred Black Hills land to be stained by lust for gold – refused to be photographed as part of a rebellion against the invaders.
It did not stop his alleged portraits from becoming popular following his death in 1877 at the hands of an out-of-control soldier during a stockade disturbance. Nearly all historians agree that Crazy Horse photographs are fakes.
The authenticity of my father’s family portraits is beyond doubt. Taken when the 20th century was in its teens, two brothers were posed in frilly dresses, long hair and delicate shoes. It was common for boys who were not yet potty trained to wear dresses in part because of convenience. Buttons and fasters were awkward to handle when cloth diapers were changed.
If the portrait was in color, the dresses would have been pink because the color was linked to masculinity. Their sister’s dress was likely pale blue, in keeping with daintiness. Color hadn’t been linked to sexual identity in the 17th and 18th centuries, and now a push to break the link forged in the 20th century goes on.
I suppose in the not-too-distant future our ancestors will sort photographs from our time and be mystified and mortified by our bellbottom pants, floppy hats, love beads and mini-skirts.
The photographs in the cardboard box ought to be restored to an honored place. Our wedding photos are contained in a grand album. The man in immaculate white tuxedo is smiling while walking down the aisle.
He neither understood the amount of love that would be needed in the decades ahead nor how quickly time passes.
Mychal Wilmes is the retired managing editor of Agri News, now known as Agweek, an agriculture-based newspaper published by Forum Communications Co.
"much" - Google News
June 08, 2020 at 12:05PM
https://ift.tt/3eXIAPx
Photographs says so much about us - PostBulletin.com
"much" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37eLLij
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Photographs says so much about us - PostBulletin.com"
Post a Comment