Interpreting Photographs Of Bygone Days
I collect old photographs from the late 1800s to the 1960s. They fascinate me. I think about that span of time years before I was born as I have no obvious personal recollection or reference or emotional investment dating back to those bygone days because I wasn’t there. I buy them online for a dollar here or two dollars there. When I find an image, I create a story about who these people were in the image. I’m interested in their social place and standing. What is their style of attire within the context of the situation? Are they friends, relatives, teammates, business associates, or perhaps romantically connected? I have one main criterion when selecting a photo for purchase. Women and children are not allowed in the photograph when I am considering one for purchase. In this investigation, I’ve concluded in my observations that it is somewhat rare for men to be the sole subject ( outside of sports) in a photograph and that’s what I find interesting. It’s not the norm.
The biggest problem when reading old photographs with a contemporary eye is that we all take our current-day bag of experiences, load them up, and project them into what we are visually consuming. It is a lens through which we look at everything as a reference point. We are automatically trained to do this. It is ingrained into our psyche from a very early age. Even if we are academically trained to resist our biases, assumptions still seep into what we are looking at. It’s human nature. We project our current-day social norms out because that’s what we know regarding how we look into how we read the past. Over a lifetime we have assembled our truths and biases. That is how we refer to the world we see.
Sometimes I’ll hit gold. I’ll be lucky to discover some writing on the back of the photograph giving me hints as to who these individuals were. It is a peek into a window into the past. Most notably they will write down the date on the back of the photograph in which the image was taken and perhaps include who the names of the individuals were. If I’m really lucky they might write down the location and the context of their experience (although rarely done). It could be a day at the beach with some friends, posing with pride in front of their automobile, or the team picture after a championship.
The images I find most interesting are the ones of men posing for formally paid studio photographs. In the Victorian era when photography was in its infancy, the image would be processed onto card stock a bit larger than a dollar bill. Cabinet Cards were given out to friends and family as a token of remembrance of a special occasion or special moment in their lives. Some of the cards I have reflect important occasions. The cards that interest me are the ones where two close friends celebrate their life experiences together. The cards that impact me the most are the men affectionately expressing themselves in formal military dress. One can’t help knowing if they managed to survive their military fate. The men in uniform of World War l are difficult to look at remembering the horrors that it brought and the casualties that it produced.
Constructing an image for a Cabinet Card was time-consuming. The first task was locating a photographer to take the picture, the preparation and time it would take to go to a studio, and then taking the actual picture. Unlike today where we have fast shutter speeds and the concept of pointing and shooting is second nature, the subjects would go into the studio, formally pose for the camera, maintain a frozen stance for an unnatural period, and if successful a perfect image would result. Any small movements could result in a blurring of the photograph. One had to be perfectly still. That is why most of them were taken without smiling. If someone goes back and looks at a stack of Cabinet Cards there is the tendency to ask why the subjects were so unhappy. It’s not that they were unhappy at all. It’s that their mouths would blur thereby resulting in a strange ghosting effect as opposed to today where we pose, stare into the camera say “cheese” and push the button.
In my entire collection, I have two images that include black men. One of them is a black man and a white man together both in uniform. They have a shared experience in the military as the starting point in their relationship as they would not have met socially in any other circumstances. Their bond is their shared experience and they have chosen to document it. The other photograph contains a black couple that I believe to be in a romantic relationship. I say that only because of the casual nature they portray in the image and the way they are looking at each other. The relaxed body language, the positioning of their hands, and the intimacy that they share. It then occurred to me why I didn't see more of these images. I concluded it was because of their economic status and simply the lack of leisure time. Could they afford a camera or take the time away from work? It’s not that those types of relationships didn’t exist, as they obviously did, they simply couldn’t afford to document them in film.
Up until the 1950s men and women had always been highly segregated and what would be considered anything of a questionable nature today was perfectly normal back then in regards to the behavior of men. Men were physically affectionate with each other, they would correspond in very intimate ways describing how much they meant to them. Because of economic times, in many cases, they would sleep together in the same bed. Their behavior was considered normal and perfectly acceptable, unlike today where the reading of those images would be completely different.
Books have been published regarding the subject and meaning of men together in pre-war imagery. A problem arises as to who is reading those pictures and what their preconceived notions could be. Gay academics and literary critics attempt to point to those images as literal visual documentation of affectionate love between “gay” men, a term that didn’t exist until the Victorian era.
I take a more nuanced view of these interesting photographs. I go on a case-by-case basis as to what could have been happening in the construction of those images. I enjoy not having to know the exact story behind what I am seeing. With the fragmented information I acquire, I can fill in the blanks with my own chosen narrative based on my background of knowledge and assumptions.
With the advancement of photography in the first half of the 20th Century, the portability of the smaller camera allowed for the constructed image to be more casual and spontaneous. One could travel to a public or hidden destination if they so choose. The destination became just as important as the individuals within the photograph in adding to the narrative of the image.
Young handsome men would spend a casual day at the beach casually leaning on each other while laying on a large blanket while enjoying their day in the sun. I have a photograph taken in the 1940s depicting this actual scenario. My reading of the photograph says that these men are all close to each other and have a definite and intimate history together. They are on a remote beach getting away from their everyday lives and can authentically express themselves away from prying eyes as I am 99.9 percent sure they are admires of men and the men who love them.
But that is just one photograph. Each one reads differently from the other. I see that as part of the fun of collecting these images. As a general question, do we always have to know the actual truth of everything we see? No matter how frustrating it can be, the answer for me is no. In our current lives, we strive to find the absolute truth and the absolute need to know. We seek to find out what that truth is and hang onto it as if our lives depend on it.
The gay community seeks to find representational imagery that reflects their life experience from a historical perspective and rightfully so as little of their history of visual repression exists. Every segregated or marginalized community yearns for experiences that reflect theirs no matter who they are. They however need to approach with caution. Pointing at everything they see to be gay can create a perception of negating the actual truth of what is going on on a case-by-case basis.
Like painting or film, photographs tell stories. They are to be enjoyed and savored and viewed as little snippets of a memory created by someone from a time that is slipping further and further away from today. We view them, interpret them, and put our romantic stamp on them and that is the magic of photography.