Birthday Tintypes

I got some lovely little tintypes for my birthday, they came from America, I do adore American Tintypes.
They are all children, two of them feature 'hidden mothers' where a parent had to hide just on the edge of the shot to hold a baby still for the picture, mine just feature an arm and side of head, the best hidden mother pictures have the whole figure draped in black fabric, it looks incredibly spooky.

Here they are in my hand to give an idea of size, they're very small and delicate.

The first one features a baby being held up by its mothers arm, the rest of her being out of shot. I love the way the baby is slumped in the chair in this one, makes it look quite weird. A lot of uneducated people online would say this was a postmortem picture (like they do about any slightly spooky looking photo from this era) but this was in fact a common way of trying to keep a baby still for long exposure times, as were stands with a neck holder for adults, this isn't holding up a corpse but just a way occasionally used to help keep subjects still for long periods.

This next one is beautiful, the detail is so lovely, it features the child's father holding her up with a fabric draped arm, you can see the side of his head in the image, this was originally hidden behind a paper mount.

This third one I thought was just lovely, the child looks so sweet just sat there with a funny face, he or she had done a good job of sitting for the picture as it doesn't look anyone is holding them up.

Some Darkroom work

I dug out a couple of old pictures I did for my A Levels, these ones were inspired by the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and I processed these myself in the darkroom.
I was never very good at darkroom processing and discarded these at the time as failures, but I can see something in them now that I love so I thought they were worth ressurecting
The first one I particularly love.

New Additions to my Photo Collection

I have 3 new additions to my Vintage Photo Collection, the first two I bought for 50p each from an Antiques market in Oxford, the third one is an Etsy find

This one is a Christmas card with the message handwritten on the back, I find it so beautiful



This one seems to be a little novelty picture done at seaside resorts where you had a photograph taken with your weight on the top as you stand on Scales, kinda weird, but I guess people weren't so bothered by their weight in those days



and finally a print from an old glass negative of a dead child

Sleeping Beauty 3

So it arrived, my amazing book, sleeping beauty 3, I love it soo much, its signed by Stanley Burnes. Its a smaller that the previous ones, but I quite like its small size, kinda like a childrens book, but a terribly sad one.







It came with a postmortem CDV thats so wonderful and delicate, the perfect parcel arriving this morning, has made my day :)

Sleeping Beauty 3

Here is the book I want for Christmas, shame the postage costs more that the book! I hope it gets on Amazon soon so i can get it sent a little cheaper before it goes out of print and cost hundreds, I am lucky enough to have the quite rare 'Sleeping Beauty 2' and I want to add to the collection with this one



heres a couple from the amazing selection of postmortem pictures of children that are included

Flea Market Finds

went to my favourite flea market this morning, picked up some more pictures for the collection, didn't spot any unrecognised postmortems, but that hardly ever happens, anyway here is what I did buy, I particularly love the family group with the terrifying woman sat at the front

Spirits

I am super poor at the moment, and running out of pictures in my collection that I haven't used before. I was looking to have poorer children in this one, so I have used some pictures from www.shorpy.com for the childrens bodies and the heads of the middle two Children.

Mid West

I just had to make something with todays new scans, I did a postcard style pictures based on American Ghost towns again, something I am so into at the moment.
I had songs like "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" in mind for this one


You looked for work and money, and walked a rugged mile,
Your children are you hungry that they don’t know how to smile,
Your babies crying louder now, its pounding on your brain,
your wifes screams are stabbing you like the dirty, driving rain,

New pictures

I bought two new pictures from an antique shop in Malvern last week, They're very pretty and will definately come in useful for my work
This one has such a hugh, awesome frame, I just had to get it

And I liked the more delicate frame around this one


And here are afew more from my collection that I had forgotten about and unearthed from the depths of my student room
These two boys will be appearing in my work very soon,

And I love this one of Indian siblings, taken in 1925, I love how happy they look, and they're dusty raggedy clothes make a change from my usual super rich children in furs and jewels

North Country Blues

Come gather round friends
And I’ll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty

In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an’ shovels they was a-humming
’Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking

The summer is gone
The ground’s turning cold
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’
My children will go
As soon as they grow
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them

- Bob Dylan

Welcome to Bly, part 2

Here is a revised version of the last image I posted, I am so much happier with this one, the colours have come together much better and the photographic faces work better, And takers for the job, they still need a governess

more on my Childrens Portrait series

I really like these little girls, I think they're quite adorable in a spooky kind of way, and I have managed to get a huge amount of uses from my one new Carte De Visite background

Highlights from my Old Photograph collection

I am a collector of Antique and Vintage photographs, I have literally hundreds and hundreds of them, ranging from Victorian to 1950s I mainly focus my collection on Children, but I also have many others, anything that catches my eye really, I thought i'd post here my most prized pictures from my collection, the gems I am so happy to own.

The first picture is a photograph of my Grandfather and his brother dressed for a local fancy dress party, as a clown and a black Minstrel. I adore this picture, the original is very tiny and one of a series including their parents in costume and costumes they wore to other events. As well as my many anonymous pictures, I love having pictures from my family aswell.



This Pair of cabinet Cards are so lovely, I bought them off the internet so I have no idea who they are, or anything about them. To me they appear to be brothers who have been photographed in some epic crochet collers their mother or Grandmother probably lovingly made for them.



This one was bought online from America, I just love the outfit she is wearing and the setting, she seems kind of spooky and strange, I wonder what event she was dressed up for, possibly a bridesmaid.



Here is my Indian boy, A small picture in large frame, which I really like. This little boy was brought back for me from India by a friend who went on holiday there.



This is one of my all time favoutites from my collection, its a Tintype in an amazingly elaborate frame. On the back there is a little information about him, his name is Charles and he is a freed slave, I am so taken with his handsome, jolly face and his wonderful outfit, I found him in an antique shop near Cambridge.



This is my favourite of all the Holy Communion photographs I have, I love her face and her pose, its just a gorgeous photograph, I bought this online from Lisbon.



Another lovley Holy Communion Picture, with a Brother and Sister, I unfortunately can't remember which country this was from, possibly Belgium and it was bought online.



This pictures comes from a Photograph album I bought online from France, its very faded, but I adore it, I love the border and the patterned cloth they are sat on.



This another one from the French Album, a brother and sister, possibly the children of the owners of the album. I love this mainly for their strange clown-like costumes.



Here is another picture of the same girl in the previous photograph, dressed again in her clown style outfit.



This is my first Postmortem photograph, it is particularly sad as she is again the same girl, who appears in the previous two pictures, it is sad to know she didn't make it to adulthood.



My next postmortem photograph shows an unidentified little girl propped on a chair, notice her vacant eyes and dropping jaw, also the cloth behind her on the chair, placed there to soak up any bodily fluids coming out of the dead body. This picture was bought online from America.



This next postmortem picture is one of my best, and one of my most precious photos, its so beautiful, showing the whole coffin surrounded by flowers, again this was bought online from America.





Finally, my absolute favourite picture, which I bought quite recently online from England, although it could possibly be an American image, i'm not sure. This a particularly stunning example of postmortem photography, with the slightly open eyes and sad pose, I like the unusual composition of this picture aswell.

Coal Miners Children

Children in bedroom of their home, Charleston, West Virginia. Their mother has TB. Father works on WPA


Coal miner's children and wife, Pursglove, West Virginia

Easter Bunny

possibly the most disturbing Easter Bunny i've ever seen, can't believe anyone would let their child see this, i know i wouldn't
I don't know where this was taken, weather it was in a house, with a parent as the bunny, or actually in a shop or something like a santas grotto, still pretty bad whichever one.