
“Double feature”
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What it is:
Five photos ranging in size from 2.5 x 2.5 inches to 3.25 x 5.5 inches.
What I know about it:
Top right photo is stamped with the name and address of Brownell Photo of Stockton, California. Bottom left photo has Double feature written on the front in pen. Bottom right photo has David Wm Hartwell Jr. / Mahwah / Age 2 1/2 written on the back in pen.
Comments:
Remember film? Remember how every frame you snapped cost money, both the film itself and the cost of getting it developed? Not to mention having to wait to see if the photo turned out? Remember how that process made almost any photo more precious than the instantly viewable and easily deletable photos of today’s digital cameras? And how that meant people tended to save even the photos that didn’t turn out so well? I suspect the double exposure in the upper right was used deliberately as an artistic flourish (I included it here because it’s interesting), but I’m pretty sure all the rest were mistakes. And yet they were all saved. The one in the bottom right was carefully identified for posterity (“Mahwah” might refer to the town in New Jersey, though I don’t know for sure), and two of them (bottom left and middle right) were mounted into photo albums. I’m glad they were saved because I think they are interesting to look at.
Love the fellow’s expression on the top left. Very satisfied with himself.
Yes, he is. Things look well in his world (camera errors aside).