Saturday Snapshots {August 29, 2009}

Last week’s launch of a new post segment for Saturdays (Saturday Snapshots) was greeted with resounding support. Over thirty wonderful readers commented, indicating to me that I am far from alone in my adoration of, and fascination with, vintage photos of strangers and the histories such images carry with them.

It’s beautiful that we share this mutual love, and I am delighted to present the second installment of Saturday Snapshots to you today. As an interesting way to wrap up this, and further editions of this post, I thought that I would share a quote (a new one each week) that speaks on some level to past, the present, memories, life, emotions or some other wonderful element that vintage photos posses and transmit to their viewers.


♥ ♥ ♥



{Two women – both infinitely cooler looking than they could have ever imagined – listed as being Joy and Lillian, pose with a stunning pink car in this photo that I’m pegging to be from the late 50s. Don’t you just love everything about the gal in the pink’s eclectic outfit? Ohhh, and doesn’t the lady seated in the car remind you a bit of Rosemary Clooney?}



{They’ve got the picket fence, but is it white? Jokes aside, this handsome young couple smile for the camera in a photographer’s studio following their wedding in October of 1952, looking so sweet together. He in his dapper suit, she in her wonderful feather adorned hat.}



{A lovely young woman sits in front of the Old Mission in Santa Barbara, California, in 1952, a look that strikes me as being both reflective and confident radiates from her face. I’m not sure what organization the uniform she’s wearing hails from, any ideas?}



{I love this shot, it shows an “everyday” glimpse into the world of the once-commonplace beauty parlour (complete with numerous bonnet style hair dryers), a spot where most women used to visit nearly every week to chat, read up on the latest fashions, and treat themselves to a well-deserved dose of primping. This particular salon was located in Florida during the 1950s.}



{Everything about this pair of gregarious ladies is fantastic. From the wide-brimmed hats to their summery dresses, beaming smiles to tree-lined backdrop, this photo just makes you happy the moment you look at it.}



{There is something almost profound about this photo from the 1930s, a lone woman walking in a patch of light down an unnamed New York street. Where is she going to or coming from, what thoughts filled her head as her shoes tread across the ashen concrete?}



{While mother and daughter look-alike dresses were easy to find in department stores and catalogues during the 50s, I get the feeling that the mom in this cheery family photo whipped up these cute summer outfits herself from the same bolt of fabric, don’t you?.}



{The clarity and composition of this shot from 1953 are both deeply striking. Instead of focusing on one or more of the diners, the food on the plates or the dish in the foreground, whether intentionally or accidentally, the photographer made the lipstick red bouquet of carnations the focal point of this beautiful image.}



{As a group of people get ready to board an airplane, one woman turns her neck and smiles to whomever was holding the camera that took this photo in 1959. Her face seems to convey happiness, warmth and excitement, indicating to me that she headed someplace that’s definitely worth being gleeful about.}



{Two elegantly beautiful women pose for a photographer in, what I’m guessing to be, their finest winter coats, in this shot from the 1930s. Names, location, an exact date or any information is not provided, leading me to really ponder who these charming young gals were. Sisters, best friends, cousins? Whoever they were, they certainly looked sharp!}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

"You have to know the past to understand the present."
~ Dr. Carl Sagan