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Alternate Processes
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Sea & Shore

Jul 2025 | Alternate Processes, Childhood Photography, Documentary Photography, New Additions, Photographic Postcards, Photography, Unknown Photographers

A collection of (mostly) summertime views from the archive to whet your appetite for a Sea & Shore pilgrimage. Let our collection of lighthouse images guide the way…

A Girl & her Dog at Riverside”, 1887, gelatin silver print, Susan Higginson Bowditch Long, American: 1857-1935: 9.7 x 12.2 cm. The subject of this charming shoreline view may be the artist’s first born child: Helen Bowditch Long Patterson, 1881-1956, who stands patiently with her spaniel atop a barnacle-encrusted boulder. From a series of candid photographs believed to have been taken by the artist compiled in a late 19th Century album bearing the armorial bookplate of her spouse Harry Vinton Long, 1857-1949. Long attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1876-77 and she later worked closely in 1909 with the Olmstead Brothers- successors to famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Sr.- in designing the extensive gardens for her family’s summer estate on Little White Head Island at Cohasset, MA. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Isles of Shoals, August 1887: Susan Higginson Bowditch Long & Camera” 1887, gelatin silver print, unknown American photographer: 8.9 x 11.4 | 11.5 x 13.7 cm. The photographer Susan Long holds a dark cloth while preparing to take photographs with her tripod-mounted plate camera on one of the islands of the Isles of Shoals, a group of small islands and tidal ledges located approximately 6 miles off the east coast of the United States between the border of Maine and New Hampshire. A line of sailboats are seen on the horizon behind her. From a series of candid photographs believed to have been taken by the artist (this by an unknown artist-probably a family member) compiled in a late 19th Century album bearing the armorial bookplate of Long’s spouse Harry Vinton Long, 1857-1949. Long attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1876-77 and she later worked closely in 1909 with the Olmstead Brothers- successors to famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Sr.- in designing the extensive gardens for her family’s summer estate on Little White Head Island at Cohasset, MA. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Children Play at Spot Pond, July 10, 1887”, gelatin silver print, Susan Higginson Bowditch Long, American: 1857-1935: 9.4 x 12.1 cm. Striking a grin and looking back towards the camera at center of this hand-holding trio may be the artist’s first born child: Helen Bowditch Long Patterson, 1881-1956. Actually a lake, Spot Pond is located “in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The pond is within the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a Massachusetts state park. It is almost entirely located within the boundaries of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Spot Pond was named in 1632 by colonial governor John Winthrop.” From a series of candid photographs believed to have been taken by the artist compiled in a late 19th Century album bearing the armorial bookplate of her spouse Harry Vinton Long, 1857-1949. Long attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1876-77 and she later worked closely in 1909 with the Olmstead Brothers- successors to famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Sr.- in designing the extensive gardens for her family’s summer estate on Little White Head Island at Cohasset, MA. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Diving Rock, Warrens Point, Little Compton, Rhode Island”, 1906, album-mounted platinum print, Alfred Wayland Cutting, American, 1860-1935, 23.0 x 19.0 | 27.8 x 34.5 cm. A diver at center prepares to launch himself off this rock outcropping at Warrens Point, with the beach in the background. Guide ropes attached to the rock face aid those who want to ascend more easily from the water. Location derived from an rppc held by the Little Compton Historical Society. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Dories at Low Tide: Ipswich River”, ca. 1895-1905, unposted cyanotype postcard, George G. Dexter, American, 1862-1927, 7.9 x 13.8 cm. A contemporary of famed Ipswich artist Arthur Wesley Dow, who also employed the cyanotype process taken during the 1890’s, Dexter was undoubtedly influenced by him, and both took photographs of boats like these along the Ipswich River. In the 1896 edition of the Directory of the The Town of Ipswich, he took out an advertisement proclaiming himself “Dexter The Photographer”: “The facts that we always guarantee perfect satisfaction, are willing to devote enough time to each sitting; to secure the best results; have one of the most throughly (sic) equipped studios in the state and are always Up-to-Date with new styles, account for our continued increase of work.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Canoe Sailing on Lake George”, ca. 1889, bromide print, W. P. Atwood, American, 1853-1954, 12.2 x 16.9 | 20.5 x 26.0 cm | overmat: 27.9 x 35.5 cm. William Preston Atwood was president of the Lowell (MA) Camera Club around the time this marine view of Lake George was taken, with Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin commenting in April, 1889 that “W. P. Atwood, of Lowell Camera Club, had four gems of scenery at Nantucket and Lake George, with particularly fine effects in the clouds. “Marblehead Rocks” and “Summer Afternoon, Lake George” were, in our opinion, the best of a fine exhibit.” The location of the photograph is also significant in the history of the sport of canoeing in the United States. The American Canoe Association statesIn 1880, the canoeists who vacationed in the Lake George – Lake Champlain area of New York State recognized the rising tide of interest in canoeing and issued a call for a Convention of Canoeists.  The result was the formation of the American Canoe Association on August 3, 1880  on the shores of Lake George, New York by 24 charter members.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

George at Lake George”, ca. 1900-10, cyanotype print, unknown American photographer, 14.5 x 19.1 cm. Appropriately named George, this gentleman sits with hat by side taking in the (likely early-morning) reflective, glassy surface view of Lake George in upstate New York.  In the background, a series of rustic wooden bridges are seen connecting several small islands jutting out into the lake. At the time visitors like George took in the Adirondack views in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lake George was more a playground of the rich than for those with limited travel and vacation budgets. This changed drastically after World War II, and today the lake and surrounding Adirondack State Park supports a large summer tourist and residential community. The 32 mile-long narrow lake is dotted with 170 islands, with the majority owned by the state of New York. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Forget selling those seashells…“Children with Matching Straw Hats at Seashore”, ca. 1905-10, unposted cyanotype divided back postcard, unknown American photographer, 10.4 x 6.1 | 13.9 x 8.8 cm. For children especially, the timeless fascination of staring at the summer sea is enhanced by the matching fancy of identical straw sun hats. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Child Raking for Clams”, ca. 1910-20, mounted bromide print, Arthur Hammond, American: born England: 1880-1962, 23.5 x 18.5 cm on black-paper album page 25.0 x 32.6 cm. A young boy, believed to be the same subject in Hammond’s study “Child Gazing in Fish Bowl” uses a long-handled rake while searching for clams, with several gathered in a small tin near the subject’s feet. The photograph may have been taken along Boston’s North Shore, with other maritime album images identified as the old Deer Island lighthouse in Boston Harbor and the original building for the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly Mass. Born in London, the artist arrived in America at Ellis Island in New York Harbor on July 31, 1909, establishing his own studio in Natick, MA by 1912. In 1920, he authored the foundational book “Pictorial Composition in Photography” and became a leading voice for pictorialism in America through his position as associate editor of American Photography magazine that lasted 30 years from 1918-1949. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Deer Island Light, Boston Harbor”, ca. 1910-20, mounted bromide print, Arthur Hammond, American: born England: 1880-1962, 18.7 x 23.9 cm on black-paper album page 25.0 x 32.6 cm. Perhaps an early morning view, with the Sun shrouded by fog on the horizon, the Deer Island Lighthouse emerges from Boston Harbor, firmly planted on a reef extending 1500’ south of Deer Island. Originally a stone beacon when established in 1832, it was replaced by this “sparkplug” type lighthouse in 1890, which survived until being replaced by a fiberglass tower in 1982. Wikipedia states “the 1890 light cost about $50,000. It included a three-story dwelling, a veranda with boat davits, and a circular parapet. The water supply was a cistern in the base of the structure. A spiral staircase ran from the cellar to the top floor. It had a fixed white light, which was changed to flashing red every thirty seconds and then to the present alternating red and white flashes.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Waves Crashing on Rocky Coastline”, ca. 1910-20, mounted bromide print, Arthur Hammond, American: born England: 1880-1962, 18.2 x 23.9 cm on black-paper album page 25.0 x 32.6 cm. Large rock formations are buffeted by waves, perhaps in one of Boston’s north shore communities of Marblehead or Gloucester. Born in London, the artist arrived in America at Ellis Island in New York Harbor on July 31, 1909, establishing his own studio in Natick, MA 1912. In 1920, he authored the foundational volume “Pictorial Composition in Photography” and became a leading voice for pictorialism in America through his position as associate editor of American Photography magazine lasting 30 years from 1918-1949. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Highland Light, Truro”, 1900, album-mountain gelatin silver print, Phillip Patterson Wells, American, 1868-1929, 8.2 x 8.3 | 16.3 x 20.9 cm. A horse-drawn carriage prepares to depart from the Truro Lighthouse in the summer of 1900. The current lighthouse “was erected in 1857, replacing two earlier towers that had been built in 1797 and 1831. It is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Cape Cod.” From a summer album containing Truro images and others by Philip Patterson Wells, who vacationed with his family on Truro. Dr. Patterson was librarian and instructor at Yale Law School for several years, and chief law officer under Gifford Pinchot for the U. S. Forestry Service, 1907-1910, counsel National Conservation Association, 1910-1911, chief law officer U. S. Reclamation Service (Department of the Interior), 1911-1913. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The Two Lights” 1890, hand-pulled photogravure plate, Charles R. White, American, 13.8 x 19.0 | 21.6 x 29.5 cm. Originally built in 1828 as two rubble stone towers 300 yards (270 m) apart, the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse is located at the southwestern entrance to Casco Bay in the US state of Maine. The lights were replaced in 1874 by “two conical towers made of cast-iron, each 67 feet (20 m) high and 129 feet (39 m) above sea level. Despite its twin beacons, Cape Elizabeth witnessed many shipwrecks.” Only the eastern tower at right still serves as a lighthouse, made famous by American artist Edward Hopper’s paintings “Lighthouse Hill” (1927) and “The Lighthouse at Two Lights”. (1929) Published in the gravure plate volume By the Sea by the Lakeside Press in 1890, The Two Lights was accompanied by the following poem: The waves dash high with tempestuous roar, | Surging in billows adown the Cape shore, | Rocking on reefs the bell buoys to tone, | Mingling in sea mists the fog horns’ trombone; | And where high on the rock-ribbed shore | The Two Light towers their red fires pour, | There at last from turmoil blest, | The waves in ocean’s calm find rest. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The Oldest Light-house Keeper on the Coast”, ca. 1895-1900, 1904 posted cyanotype postcard, George G. Dexter, American, 1862-1927, 7.9 x 14.0 cm. Captain Benjamin Noyes Ellsworth, 1813-1902, appointed keeper of the Ipswich lighthouse by US President Abraham Lincoln in 1861, looks out to the sea in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The photograph was taken by Dexter most likely at the very end of the 19th or early 20th century. In the 1896 edition of the Directory of the The Town of Ipswich, the artist took out an advertisement proclaiming himself “Dexter The Photographer”: “The facts that we always guarantee perfect satisfaction, are willing to devote enough time to each sitting; to secure the best results; have one of the most throughly (sic) equipped studios in the state and are always Up-to-Date with new styles, account for our continued increase of work.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Eyes Wide Shut

Feb 2025 | Alternate Processes, New Additions, Painters|Photographers, Significant Portfolios

It seems relevant to look to a chapter of America’s past-that of the so-called “Gilded Age” whose unchecked power and monopolies ran most things in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, while seeking out clues to the unsustainable wealth, as well as racial and environmental disparities of the present-day.

“Group Photo: One of the 1001 Nights Costume Party: December 17, 1896”, James Lawrence Breese, American, 1854-1934, Cyan Carbon Print, The Carbon Studio, 1897 from 1896 negative, 22.3 x 27.6 | 35.8 x 50.6 cm & mat with window opening: 25.1 x 29.8 cm. Celebrants attending a costume party close their eyes while being instructed by host, the photographer James L. Breese, seen standing at right. Breese, who might be described as a dandy polymath of the America’s Gilded Age, (photography, race cars, early airplanes as well as other passions) was a stockbroker by profession who ran his Carbon Studio more as a hobby, although it was a paying concern. But social gatherings were also an amusement. His riotous, and sometimes scandalous midnight “1001 night” Salons like this one were gatherings for the New York City elite. The scandal on this occasion? “News” of a distinctly social register kind appeared in the pages of the New York Journal ten days after this photograph was taken: champagne had to be used to extinguish the flaming dress of Mrs. George B. de Forest- “a member of one of the city’s oldest and most aristocratic families”, who “narrowly escaped being burned to death as a result of the exuberant liveliness of the entertainment” in the form of one party goer amusing himself by throwing lit matches into the air. From: PhotoSeed Archive

In defending artistic expression, the history and beauty of past accomplishments: in the form of art, photographs, literature, musical scores, etc. is top of mind in the evolving form of this website. Of course, the transformational technologies that created and maintain the modern internet have made this possible in the first place, but maintaining our Democratic ideals, all within a Constitutional framework- keeps things honest, in check, and crucially- from falling apart.

And yet the mantra of late seems to reward those going really fast, while things have started to break.  Asking questions does not seem to figure into certain algorithms- or at least those programmed by a computer. Meanwhile, the ones running the show seem to be closing their eyes while flipping all the switches. What could possibly go wrong? Uncharted for now, but devastating in a most human and personal way for those swept up in the present.

These so-called mandates, earned by our esteemed prophets of commerce in the seeking of the new, belies an absolute absence of what was once known as “wisdom”, at least in what I formerly understood to be the meaning of that word pertaining to government action and sound public policy. I for one am sober to the reality of what I’m looking at. I may not like it, but I’m planning on keeping my eyes open, all the same. I hope you feel similarly, while maintaining vigilance and honesty in calling out the truth staring back at us.

 

See related: Portfolio: Souvenir of “One of the 1001 Nights”

New Year Hope

Jan 2024 | Alternate Processes, New Additions, Scientific Photography, Unknown Photographers

“Scrapbook album page of 4 plant photograms”: Unknown British photographer, c. 1871-1872. Grouping of Albumen silver prints pasted to secondary mount with hand-applied, printed red-ruled borders & pasted paper butterfly. Overall page: 27.4 x 23.5 cm; prints: +/- 9.5 x 6.0 cm. Clockwise from top left: Selaginella- unknown “spike moss”, Maidenhair fern, unknown fern x 2. This unusual grouping was a gift dated April 9, 1872 to Arthur Francis Elliot Norton (1854–1922) of New South Wales, Australia. (“This for my dear Grandson & Godson” Provenance: NSW collection. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Winter Poem

Jan 2023 | Alternate Processes, Color Photography, Painters|Photographers, PhotoSeed, Texts, Typography

Deep Holbein

Mar 2021 | Alternate Processes, Color Photography, New Additions, Significant Photographers, Significant Photographs

A reappraisal of old photos has recently invaded the public conversation of late. Artificial intelligence, in the form of video driver technology invented by Israeli company D-ID, was licensed earlier this year to genealogy and DNA company MyHeritage with the moniker Deep Nostalgia™. Old photographs, no matter their original medium, are brought to life as short animated video clips, and may never be seen in the same way again.

Screenshot: Animated “A Holbein Woman” from YouTube. Cropped image of the same by American photographers Frances & Mary Electa Allen, ca. 1890 using the Deep Nostalgia™ app licensed to genealogy and DNA company MyHeritage. Original source photograph from PhotoSeed Archive.

Taking up the company’s free offer to try out the technology, I applied it to a recent archive acquisition, A Holbein Woman, taken in the very early 1890’s by Deerfield, Massachusetts sister photographers Frances Stebbins and Mary Electa Allen. You can see the result in a short 12 second video posted to YouTube embedded above in this post.

Left: Colorized version of “A Holbein Woman” by American photographers Frances & Mary Electa Allen, ca. 1890. Created by DeOldify deep learning experts Jason Antic and Dana Kelley, this colorizing technology has been licensed from DeOldify by DNA company MyHeritage, with their branding of MyHeritage In Color™. Source photograph from PhotoSeed Archive. Right: “Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany”: c. 1520-25: Formerly attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger, Germany: (1497/1498-1543): Oil on panel: 45 x 34 cm: Courtesy: collection of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.

The photograph, considered a masterwork of early genre pictorialist portrait photography, is of their mother Mary Stebbins Allen, (1819-1903) and in itself done after the then fashionable practice (1.) of an imitation painting: in this case, a Renaissance portrait by Bavarian artist Hans Holbein the Elder. (c. 1460-1524) To add another layer of mystery, research I did last year revealed the primary source portrait- the oil painting (c.1520-1525) known as “Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany” in the collection of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, was originally attributed to Holbein’s son “The Younger”, (c. 1497-1543) with the now updated disclaimer by the museum’s curators as being “formerly attributed” to this artist. This painting can be seen at upper right, with a colorized version of the Allen sisters portrait run through remarkable colorization technology MyHeritage In Color™ at left.

“A Holbein Woman”: Frances Stebbins & Mary Electa Allen, American: 1854-1941 & 1858–1941. Gelatin silver print ca. 1890: 20.1 x 16.3 cm laid down on light gray card mount 35.2 x 27.8 cm: presented here in original ca. 1896 beaded wood frame by Greenfield, MA framer Dunklee & Freeman with original overmat replaced. Done with the intent of being a tribute imitation painting to Hans Holbein’s “Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany”, the subject of this portrait is the photographer’s mother Mary Stebbins Allen. (1819-1903) The result: “A Holbein Woman”, was one of the earliest and most successful examples of portraiture done by the Deerfield, MA sisters. From: PhotoSeed Archive.

Another words, if being accurate to revisionist history but without the convenient addition of a famous name, (2.) the Allen sisters efforts in the modern day might conceivably be retitled “A Formerly Attributed Woman” rather than “A Holbein Woman”.

And although it is but one example reanimated from that era using new technology, it seems reasonable to conclude 21st Century progress courtesy of Deep Nostalgia™ may only reinforce and belie a continuation of certain prejudices and expectations from the past, the same criticism that could be leveled at video driver technology being only an approximation of humanity, leaving us devoid of the true mannerisms of those who actually lived.

Exhibition label: “A Holbein Woman”: ca. 1896. Pasted white-paper label (7.2 x 13.6 cm) (preserved and cut out from) wood backing board with black ink photographers stamp: F.S. & M.E. Allen. Deerfield, Mass.; in black ink believed to be in the hand of the photographers: No 7   A Holbein Woman: 73 to upper right corner, faint X mark in red ink in lower right. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Creepy” is one online descriptor I kept encountering in people’s reactions to this new technology, but when has that ever stopped “progress”? (3.) Are we doomed or can fleeting perceptions of the past in old photographs brought to “life” change our future for the better, our marveling reactions to it as incidental as the new shiny object of the here and now? Only time will tell. (4.)    David Spencer-

Notes:

1. The worldwide pandemic brought on by COVID-19 lockdowns inspired a massive revival of imitation paintings and other works of art including photography. Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in March, 2020 promoted their Stay at Home Challenge!, inviting people to recreate modern day reinterpretations from masterworks in their collection. This was soon followed by the Getty museum in California. One of the very first “challenge” accounts to promote this revived genre was the Netherlands Instagram account Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine– translating to “between art and quarantine” which first inspired the Rijksmuseum challenge.

2. This would never happen.

3. An examination of ethical concerns as a result of so-called Deepfake technology contained within Deep Nostalgia™ is explored in a New York Times article written by Daniel Victor from March 10, 2021: Your Loved Ones, and Eerie Tom Cruise Videos, Reanimate Unease With Deepfakes.

4. That shiny object has been here since February, 2021. Care to upload a selfie, historical photograph or stock pic of Kim Jong-un, Mao Zedong or Joe Biden and see yourself or them “sing” to popular music? Then download the WOMBO app here. Guardian technology columnist Helen Sullivan reports on March 12, 2021 the app just might be giving competition to Deep Nostalgia™.

19th Century Game Theory

Oct 2020 | Alternate Processes, Cameras, Engraving, Games, History of Photography, New Additions, Publishing

19th Century amateur photographers faced trials and tribulations in mastering their new found craft, put into the spotlight after photography itself became a growing mass medium with the marketing of Kodak’s #1 box camera in late 1888.

In 1889, taking advantage of this new large audience-by giving them a fun diversion- the Milton Bradley company of Springfield, Massachusetts produced what is believed to be the world’s first card game on photography, one they called “The Amateur Photographer”.  So now, the agony and ecstasy experienced by those dedicated amateurs who owned more advanced cameras and maintained wet darkrooms while embracing art and science could be enjoyed by all. PhotoSeed recently acquired 24 cards of this game from the original set of 36.

Left: “Buy a Good Outfit” : Right: “First Prize”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The directions for this Victorian card game can be seen printed below in a vintage advertisement for the 1889-90 Milton Bradley Company “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties”. 

For the most part up to the present day, physical card and board games have never featured the character of the photographer, although video games beginning in the 1990’s have included many, including: “Polaroid Pete” (1992), “Pokémon Snap” (1999), “Dead Rising” (2006): excerpt: “gamers play photojournalist Frank West, who somehow got stuck in a shopping mall in Colorado during the zombie apocalypse. Frank has to fight his way out through hoardes of zombies and uncover the truth with his camera.” and “Spiderman 3” (2007).

Instead, popular culture has taken the lead, with the larger than life character of the photographer (for good and bad) celebrated in films taking hold in our collective imaginations. Some that come to mind by this writer include James Stewart’s character spying out his apartment window using a telephoto camera lens in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful film “Rear Window”, (1954) and Peter Parker’s more recent alter-ego occupation sans Spiderman suit. Enjoy the following select game cards from this surviving set.

Left: Title Page from “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties Made by Milton Bradley Company”. Right: Catalogue listing for card game “The Amateur Photographer” in same volume, 1889-90. (p. 10) Courtesy: Internet Archive

Left: “Try an Instantaneous Shot” : Right: “Film Comes Off”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two negative value cards show two common problems: film emulsion sensitivity or improper camera settings on left card reveals the amateur’s error of not being able to “stop” the action of a race horse while the chemical darkroom problem of a peeling film emulsion (washing too vigorously perhaps?) ruining the masterwork of a sailboat photograph at right. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Two on the Same Plate” : Right: “How Pretty”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. The negative value card at left shows the common problem of exposing the same photographic plate twice for two different scenes while at right, a positive value card shows a seemingly perfect picture of a bouquet of flowers. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “She Only Wanted to See the Picture” : Right: “Composite Old Maids in Our Town”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. Gender sexism depicting the foibles of the female sex was alive and well when Amateur Photography first came into fashion- evidenced by the negative value card at left of a woman peeking at the results of an exposed photographic plate before the negative was properly fixed in the darkroom. Owing to the fact Photography was then a very expensive hobby and career opportunities for women in general were completely lacking, the majority of practitioners were men. But this would soon change, particularly after the dawn of the 20th Century, when Photography actually became one of the few occupations women were encouraged to pursue outside the home. At right, in a twist of this same gender sexism, a positive value card reveals itself in the form of this photographic portrait of an “old maid”, complete with mustache and tiara? or hair comb- with comparisons to later portraits of Queen Victoria by the card artist possibly being the so-called “humorous” intent. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Snap Shot at Tennis Player” : Right: “Try a Shot by Magnesium Light With Good Effect”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two high value cards reveal the very tricky technical goal of freezing sports action at left- something rarely attempted at the time- and at right, the undertaking of a so-called “flashlight” photograph. This was achieved on a photographic plate through the intense illumination given off during the ignition of flash powder made up of a mixture of nitrate and magnesium held off camera by the photographer. From: PhotoSeed Archive

One exception found online by this website is the 2016 Japanese card game  “Wind the Film!”, a half-frame camera photography themed card game for 2-4 players.

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