Memoirs of me

A New Project

2012-11-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

With my impending application for Master of Fine Arts at Falmouth University in 2013, I have decided that I need to get my portfolio up to date.
So a new major project is born....the first major practice based work I have undertaken since graduating in 2010.

Here is the introduction.........let me know what you think.

I always begin a project by picturing what the end product will be, so......

Imagine finding a box.....it is average sized, about the size of 4 shoeboxes, but not as big as a trunk. It is wooden, carved and painted and has a brass lock.

Inside there are documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs, both loose and in albums documenting the life of a woman from her childhood to her death.

The contents are mixed up, all together, in no particular order, as if they have been taken out and put back many times.

I want to create this woman’s life. She was famous in her youth, a burlesque dancer and actress.

She had a normal childhood; there is a family album of photos dating from her birth in 1969.

Her rise to fame is charted by newspaper articles, magazine spreads and studio photographs. As is her fall from grace. There are scandals, affairs, gossip and numerous photographs of her rebellious lifestyle. Nightclubs, fetish clubs, drugs and alcohol feature heavily in the diaristic photographs.

There are letters...many letters, from her to her sister; from lovers to her. They document the hidden self that she hides from the media. There are diaries and scrapbooks she has made herself.

Everything ends with the final document...an obituary cut from a newspaper.

And this is where I intend to start: the obituary. It will help me map her life; the dates and events that led to this box being found.

Buses

2012-10-05T01:07:00.001-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that jobs are like buses.........nothing for years and then loads at once.
So, with some time to fill, I contacted local colleges that teach photography and asked if I could work for them for free. This has two advantages.....1. I get some fab experience to put on my CV, and 2. I'm surrounded by young, enthusiastic artists that inspire my thought processes constantly.
I heard from one college (yes, just one......you'd think the offer of a free worker would be met with more excitement, wouldn't you?) and started assisting on the Art and Design Foundation course at Truro College in September. Woo!
But it didn't stop there, oh no....that was just the beginning. On my first day, I found out about a job teaching Recreational Photography in the evenings. I rang about it and got an interview for the next day. Excellent!
Then I began a discussion with Dena O'Brien, printmaker extraordinaire and tutor on Art and Design, who needed a photographer to catalogue all her work for use on her website- this was commission #1.
I started teaching the evening classes last Tuesday (which was a bit nerve-wracking as I had less than a week to plan it, by the time I found out I had the job), and 2 days ago, I had a call from an old contact at the brewery asking me to do another commission for them in November.
I'm telling you, it's all gone a bit mental!
Nothing for a year, then two jobs and two commissions in as many weeks.
I'm a happy bunny.

New Website and other news

2012-09-10T01:55:00.001-07:00

New Website and other news

2012-09-10T01:52:00.002-07:00

Hi folks.
Been away longer than I thought.
Here's an update on recent activity in very short, concise sentences.
1. Have decided the MRes at Plymouth was not for me. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong course. So I have cut and run!
2. I shall be working this year on my portfolio. Getting it up to date and enjoying photography again, doing my own projects and building current work, so I will have a decent, up to date portfolio for any future interviews.
3. I shall be conducting infrequent lectures at University College Falmouth on The Family Album in the Digital Age and maybe other stuff.
4. I shall be assisting on the Art and Design Foundation course at Truro College until the Christmas break.

So it's all busy busy!
Go look at my new website. It has many galleries and pretty things as well as contact details.
Liz Best Photography

Events have taken a turn

2012-06-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

After much pulling of hair and wailing, a decision has been made.
I am taking a suspension of my studies in September and I have applied for an internship at Falmouth University for the year, then I will continue the masters in 2013.
Hopefully, hanging about with inspiring young minds and playing with photography equipment will spur me on next year. And I will get paid, so be able to save for next years costs.
Such a relief to have a plan again.
Now cross fingers and toes that I get this internship!

Don't know what I'm doing any more

2012-06-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

The lull has turned into a standstill.
Don't know what my question is any more.
Don't know if I can be bothered to do this for another year.
Don't know if I can afford to.
Mojo, drive and inspiration have gone out the window ( I hope they are all having a lovely time with each other on their holidays).
I could be working and earning pennies right now, but instead I'm staring at the screen of my laptop wondering where I stepped off the path into the wild woods.

A lull in proceedings

2012-05-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

So I had a wonderful tutorial the other week. Fully inspired, I came away from it all fired up and brimming with enthusiasm.
But then a strange thing happened. I started to think about what had been suggested as a way forward. These suggestions included visiting London monthly, visiting the National Media Museum in Bradford and perhaps some visits to explore the possibilities of Scottish archives. These all sound fabulous and very relevant to my research, however Jon has taken a pay freeze, and we're struggling to pay to get me to London once every six months, let alone once a month. The course fees are coming up again in September (double last years) and money is getting harder and harder to squeeze out of the budget for my studies.
So, what did I do? Well....I went and had a small nervy b (to quote Georgia Nicholson). I considered the possibility of maybe having to give up my studies and get a job. You must understand that's the last thing I want. I LOVE my studies. It makes me feel worthwhile, and I know it will get me a great job (hopefully) when I'm done, so Jon can give up work and I can bring in the pennies for him.
But still, I have all this guilt. Everyone else in the family is suffering and going without, just so I can get what I want. I know that's not realistic, but that's what my inner guilt is telling me.
But I don't want to submit a sub-standard Masters degree thesis because I haven't had the funds to complete the required research. I'd rather quit than do that.
So, after emailing my tutors and explaining the situation, they gave me a few suggestions. Namely, contact the uni funding dept (the answer there was there is no funding for post-grad), or change the parameters of my research question so that I am covering something I can research closer to home.
I've recently discovered the Cornish Studies Library in Redruth, who have a wealth of lovely information and some fabulous old family albums and archives. I spent a lovely day down there last week, just browsing and taking notes. I also have feeders out to Morrab library, Royal Cornwall Museum and the National Trust.
One of the questions I could ask is regarding how libraries and museums will improve online accessibility to their Family Album collections in the future?
The other possibility is to completely re-define the Family Album. This interests me quite a bit as it links to where I started and takes in everything from social, political and cultural changes since the 1850's. (I've done a lot of research on this already, be a shame to waste it!).
Subsequently though, I have come to a standstill. I cannot continue until I have decided what I'm doing, but I cannot decide until I start working on it. Catch 22.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated lovely blog reader.

Until then, I need one of these....

Or a winning one of these..........

History of the Victorian Family Album (work in progress)

2012-05-07T03:50:00.001-07:00

The History of the Family Album – work in progress

§ Research notebooks- 1830-40

The family album history is grounded in the origins of photography itself. In the 1830’s photography as a medium was widely regarded as a means of recording and indexing/cataloguing nature and specimens as well as people. Check Darwin Photographs of plants, people and architecture replaced and were added to drawings and sketches in research journals of the day. Proof. Even experimental and amateur photographers of the time, saved their successful experiments in photography in small albums like journals of their work. As soon as photographs were no longer limited to glass, the format and materiality of them seemed exceptionally suited to pages and books. Their very flatness dictated the means of storage and display.

§ Women’s keepsake albums- 1830-40

Women had, previous to photography, kept ‘keepsake albums’ which included drawings and verse to demonstrate and practise skills that were considered valuable to the modern Victorian young lady.

In the sixteenth century the commonplace book was used to record “good sayings and notable observations”, for the owner it served as a personal repository of wisdom and information

The development of scrap books and albums date from the 18th century, they contained a wide variety of printed material, as well as paintings, drawings and “...a medley of scraps, half verse and half prose and something’s not very like either, where wise folk and simple alike to combine, and you write your nonsense, that I may write mine”. (Warrington, 2012)

With its elaborately embossed binding the scrap album or scrap book was an object of appreciation, giving endless and agreeable activity for its owner. Early albums, compiled mainly by young ladies of some social standing, were carefully arranged with poetry and original writings, often extravagant and sentimental together with the other accomplishments expected of every intelligent and well informed young lady - drawing and painting. Appropriate items were added with care and enthusiasm for when the book was complete it would be her most precious possession commanding a place next to the family bible upon the drawing-room table.

In the early nineteenth century beautiful albums of high quality were produced having ornately hand-tooled leather covers, engraved clasps and brass locks.

Other albums and scrapbooks had blind embossed covers carrying elaborate designs of great detail, spines tooled in gold decoration, pages with gilt edgings and pretty end-papers to excite interest in the most genteel of young ladies.

In the final decades of the century these gave way to highly decorated covers, in great and wonderful variety, carrying lavish designs and colourful illustrations.

The high quality of paper used was for the mounting of prints and lithographs or thicker paper was provided for drawings and water colours. Others had decorations printed or blind embossed onto the pages with blank spaces in the shape of circles, ovals or squares into which small scraps or prints would be pasted.

Early scrap albums were prized possessions, intended to be handed down through the family over many generations, whose purpose was for the recording of personal mementoes, poems, religious texts and contributions from friends and family.

§ Album page, arranged around a central engraving, using plain and hand-coloured lithographs and cut-out anecdotes and conundrums from contemporary magazines and journals.
Numerous leaves, in this album, bear the watermark “G H Green 1830” and “Dobbs & Co”. Circa 1835

In the early 19th century, Victorian autograph albums were embellished with hand-painted flowers and figures and were adorned with needlepoint. Sentiments, prayers and serious thoughts were inscribed into these albums and shared between friends, family and teachers. Some writers would articulate their sentiments with a favourite poem or a hand drawn picture.

Some autograph albums were bestowed with mementos. This was also a time when it was all the rage to share a lock of hair with a special friend or a loved one. Some friends would share their lock by fastening it to an album page along with a verse. Locks of hair from family and friends were also treasured and used to make jewellery such as earrings and bracelets, and many were encased in lockets for remembrance.

§ Daguerreotypes- 1839-1850

Daguerreotypes were glass and came in their own hinged cases, each one kept individually from the others. There may have been collections of daguerreotypes kept by individuals, but the storage of them due to their size and weight would have been cumbersome and difficult. Explore daguerreotype collections

Unlike today's photography where one can make many photographic prints from a single negative, the Daguerreotype was the negative. There were no duplicates. If you own a daguerreotype it is a '1-of-1.' These photographs were delicate and held in special cases. These cases vary in design and are often stylish and colourful.

The public was enamoured with these images. The prices however were prohibitive, and subjects and owners were usually middle-class to rich.

As with the Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes and Tintypes have a black backing to correct the contrast, and the images are in mirror reverse. While the Ambrotype was short-lived, the tintype was an especially cheap way to make photography and lasted until the early 20th Century. Many people collected Tintypes and housed them in special albums. Were these the first family albums or did the tradition begin at an earlier stage?

§ Medical, police, transport, post office

The Victorian age was a time of discovery and invention and social changes were taking place which utilised the new photographic technology. The modern police force was just beginning and photography was utilised to make identification of criminals easier. Mention John Tagg writings. The transport systems such as trains were now available, and so the images of criminals could be dispersed throughout the country, facilitating police and prisons to identify criminals in a way that had been previously impossible, lowering crime rates but bringing with it the possibility of wrongful arrest, due to the images being altered in the taking by the criminals themselves. The first postage stamps and postal service had just newly been invented and as such, people could send their images and cartes de visites with letters to friends and family across the country and later, the world. Basic historical context- merely touch on this to place in context.

“In a somewhat bizarre inversion of the aristocratic tradition of furnishing the halls with family portraits, they were also displayed within institutions themselves for the supposed benefit of their own subjects.[....] to provide therapeutic entertainment for the inmates of the asylum as part of the then fashionable ‘moral treatment’”. (Green-Lewis, 1996)

§ Wet plate- 1850’s

Collodion technology made photographic images a common sight in the shop windows of Regent Street and Piccadilly in London and the commercial boulevards of Paris. In London, for example, there were at the time some 130 commercial establishments (besides well-landscapes, genre scenes, and photographic reproductions of works of art could be bought in regular and stereograph formats. This appeal to the middle class convinced the elite that photographs would foster a taste for verisimilitude instead of ideality, even though some critics recognized that the work of individual photographers might display an uplifting style and substance that was harmonious with art. () Find how to reference un-authored website

Due to the difficulties of wet-plate photography, the image making was still limited to either the studio or the portable studio, it was still a recreation of the wealthy; limited to the upper classes with time on their hands to practice and the means to learn the skills involved and purchase the equipment needed.

§ Cartes de Visite- 1854

Albumen Photographs were made on especially lightweight paper and were usually glued to a mount. A large one of these 'cards' was a Cabinet Card, so called because it was often displayed in a cabinet. A miniature version is called a Carte de Visite. These Cabinets and Cartes pictured hundreds of subjects from Presidents to actresses, family members to nature scenes and cityscapes. Cartes were intended for use as calling cards. For example, a man may leave his Carte de Visite (with his photograph) with a business associate or friend. Local stores often sold Cabinets or Cartes of famous people. Collecting these and placing them into albums was a fashionable leisure pursuit.

Cartes were incredibly similar in pose, costume and props and similarities can be drawn between the conventions of cartes and conventions of contemporary family album photography in general. Link to Siegel Quote

The carte de visites that came into fashion around this time extended the collection opportunities of the upper and middle classes. People collected photographs of famous people as well as friends and family. Indeed, some albums were arranged in order of importance, with the most highly regarded at the front of the album and friends and family at the rear. The more popular and important the collected dignitaries within the album, the more affluent the family who owned them were considered; it was akin to knowing the person portrayed. Cartes might be seen as the beginnings of fascination with celebrity.

Despite the name, cartes de visite were rarely used as visiting cards. Given the number of calls a lady or gentleman made during a day or week, imagine the extraordinary number of photographic visiting cards they would have to buy. Contemporary writers do give us some tantalizing indications of where they did maintain the role of social mediator. Although a writer in 1862 did say the carte de visite had come to "overshadow the contents of every card basket," it is likely visitors left their photograph there because the photograph album was still somewhat of a rare item at the time. By 1862, the fashion of "having one's likeness photographed upon his visiting card," according to Scientific American, had been modified into the custom of distributing dozens of small portraits among friends. Every young lady expected to receive photographs from a relative, a love interest or friend and then with the aggressiveness of a "lady beggar" as Vanity Fair put it; she overwhelms all of her acquaintances with requests for personal photographs in order to form her collection. Cartes de visite were often autographed with a signature at the bottom of the card just below the image for handing out to guests by a variety of well-known persons such as politicians, reverends, actors and dancers. Find who quoted this

Due to its small size the carte de visite proved easy to handle and view without the use of an optical instrument or a special viewing angle, giving it advantages over the stereo photograph and the daguerreotype correspondingly. The small images were ubiquitous and collected by nearly everyone who could afford them. The Victorians were avid photograph collectors, every parlour having its share of carte de visite albums brimming with the images of family, friends and celebrated persons.

§ Queen Victoria

Around 1842, the Queen asked Alfred Chalon, Court painter, if he was worried that the new art of photography would ruin his profession of miniature painting. Chalon was confident that it would not. Replying in his heavily accented English he said: "Ah non, Madame; photographie can't flatte're." And flattery was Chalon's stock in trade; his portraits of the young Queen bear little resemblance to her real appearance. But Chalon had misread the needs of his subjects, who, in a choice between flattery and believability demanded the seemingly magical reality of the daguerreotype.

In addition to commissioning photographers, the Royal couple were assiduous in the collecting of images. Queen Victoria had her own collection of Cartes, and used to send her ladies in waiting out across London to collect them from affluent families, for her to place in her collection. This must have had a great deal of impact on the fashion of collecting amongst the ladies of the upper and middle classes, desiring to emulate the Queen herself. One of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, the Hon. Eleanor Stanley, wrote home on 24 November 1860: "I have been writing to all the fine ladies in London for their and their husbands’ photographs for the Queen. I believe the Queen could be bought and sold, for a photograph." (Jay, 1988)

The Queen and her Consort obviously derived much pleasure from examining and arranging the photographs in their albums. Few days passed without Victoria sending for one volume or another, all of which were methodically catalogued with their contents arranged in systematic order. Photographs for these albums were commissioned, bought at exhibition, exchanged with related royal families abroad, or simply requested.

On Victoria's death there was a massive house-cleaning under the direction of her son, now King Edward VII. Thousands of loose photographs which his parents had treasured were burnt, but even the remains will indicate the extent of the Royal passion for photography - over 100,000 photographs survived in 110 albums.

The Royal taste in photography was extensive, and the subjects include family portraits, likenesses of practically every Victorian with a claim to distinction, all European heads of state, reproductions and documents of paintings, engravings, sculptures, silver and other treasures of the Royal archives, memorials of Royal events such as christenings, confirmations, weddings and anniversaries, military campaigns, royal residences, prize bulls and pigs on the royal farms, servants who had worked for the Queen for a long period, visiting, and the Royal pets.

The Queen not only commissioned and collected photographs but presented prints on every possible occasion. In particular, anniversaries were always commemorated with the giving of photographs.

By the 1880s the problematic, unwieldy and messy wet-plate process had given way to dry-plates and hand cameras - more suitable for the Royal ladies. Princesses Beatrice, Louise, Victoria, Maude, Princess Christian of Hesse and Princess Henry of Battenburg, were all accomplished amateur photographers. But undoubtedly the most successful and enthusiastic photographer in the Royal household from the late 1880s was Princess Alexandria, wife of Bertie. She made snapshots of practically every member of the Royal family, on all of their excursions. Her work was exhibited in 1897 side by side with the most celebrated photographers of the day (including H. P. Robinson, George Davison, Frederick H. Evans, J. Craig Annan, and A. Horsley Hinton). Her pictures were published in The Graphic in August 1905 and in book form in 1908. (Jay, 1988)

§ First commercial photo albums 1860’s

Albums were a direct result of the development of photographic prints, displacing the more ornate frames used for Daguerreotypes.

The first albums were produced in France in 1857/8, by which time the carte de visite (patented there in 1854) was becoming fashionable. Entrepreneurs across the English Channel were quick to seize this new business opportunity and photograph albums were being advertised in the British trade press by 1861. This was the year that witnessed an explosion in carte de visite sales, the phenomenon known as ‘cartomania’. The active promotion of and growing interest in the novel albums in turn encouraged the taking and collecting of more photographs. During the early 1860s, cartes were known as ‘album portraits’, demonstrating the close connection between these new photographs and the fashion for displaying them in albums. (Shrimpton, 2011)

§ Social class, upper ten thousand, social political season, town and country estates

‘Upper Ten Thousand’, or simply, The Upper Ten, is a phrase coined in 1852 by American poet Nathaniel Parker Willis to describe the upper circles of New York, and hence of other major cities.

The phrase first appeared in British fiction in The Adventures of Philip by William Thackeray, whose eponymous hero contributed weekly to a fashionable New York journal entitled “The Gazette of the Upper Ten Thousand”. In 1875, both Adam Bissett Thom and Kelly's Directory published books entitled ‘The Upper Ten Thousand’, which listed members of the aristocracy, the gentry, officers in the British Army and Navy, members of Parliament, Colonial administrators, and members of the Church of England (the Victorian equivalent of ‘Who’s Who’, if you will). The usage of this term was a response to the broadening of the British ruling class which had been caused by the Industrial Revolution.

The social and political scenes were firmly interwoven. Parliament would be in session in late spring, early summer and during this time, the upper classes would convene in their London homes, taking part in the circles of social parties and gatherings arranged with the main purpose of facilitating the introduction of young people and the arrangement of possible marriages. In the autumn they would retreat to their country homes and estates, where the women had more time on their hands to work on their Photocollage albums, and other feminine pastimes.

§ Photocollage albums – 1860’s 70’s

· Detail from album page

· Pressed grass, leaves and flower

· Lands End & Logan Rock

· July 9, 1883

Photographs themselves were mainly taken in studios by professional photographers, although a few very affluent families had cameras of a professional nature and took their own posed photographs around their gardens and outside of their homes. Around this time, album collecting and collating became a hobby of the upper and middle class women. They would create and often hand paint and decorate the albums, then cut up photographs and create collages similar in fashion to scrapbooking. It was an activity saved for evenings and rainy days and the resulting books were left on tables in reception rooms for visitors to peruse at their leisure. Was it a way of showing off? Self Expression in a time when women had little voice?

“Early albums were ‘knowing’. These women were using photographs ‘to give materiality to their own culturally and socially specific desires and pleasures’”.(Di Bello, 2004)

It was also an aide memoire for personal and collective storytelling. This links in to the belief of the oral tradition of storytelling. Family stories and histories would have been passed down through the family by word of mouth. The trigger for these would previously have been the commissioned paintings of families, hung on the walls of the well to do homes. The tradition of only the richest having their portraits painted has not died out, in fact it is having a resurgence in modern times, due to photography being classed as more common nowadays. Question this.

The ability and skills necessary for album making were seen as refinement and talent as well as having the monetary ability to pay for the private lessons required for learning those skills.

Where regular Carte albums and studio photographs levelled the field and made every sitter seem of the same standing, Photocollage albums went some way to correcting this; “What was supposed to be indicative of individual character instead had a levelling effect, supplying all sitters with the same signs of gentility: when collagists later attacked cartes de visite with their scissors, they in effect restored the primacy of the sitter to the image”. (Siegel and Weidemeyer, 2009)

§ Fashion, suffrage.

With women escaping from the confines of the home in pursuit of photographs with their hand held cameras, the fashion began to change. The easiest way for a young woman to get about independently was on a bicycle; however the fashion of long dresses was not suited to riding a bike. They took to altering their dress and began to wear bloomers to ride their bikes, making it easier to get around. Suffrage- explore.

§ Literature

Nonsense rhyme and literature had a huge influence on the albums and creativity of Victorian ladies. Lewis Caroll, Edward Lear, Grimm and Andersen fairytales first make an appearance and can be seen to have had a great influence over the art and content of albums, particularly the Photocollage albums. Knowing allusions were made to Victorian visual culture in an attempt to demonstrate the wealth of education available to the upper and middle classes. People had images of their heads pasted onto animal bodies and the use of imagery including playing cards, croquet, and the like gave reference not only to the leisure activities that were partaken, but of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

§ Flash- 1860’s Blitzlicht- 1887

Early History of Artificial Lighting

In the early days of photography, the only source of light was, of course, the sun. Mostly photography depended upon long days and good weather. It was obvious that artificial light would be indispensable: not dependent on the sun anymore, pictures could be taken where natural light wasn’t sufficient, or on dull days when studio work was impossible.

The first artificial light photography dates back to 1839, when L. Ibbetson used oxy-hydrogen light (also known as limelight, discovered by Goldsworthy Gurney) when photographing microscopic objects. Limelight was produced by heating a ball of calcium carbonate in an oxygen flame until it became incandescent.

Despite being used widely around 1839-1840, the results of using the chemical were rather poor: chalk-white pale faces and a harshly lit picture, an effect created due to the imperfection of the light source and differentiation of the reflectance of different parts of the scene (due to different distances and materials).

Attempts of using limelight and other chemical sources for lighting the picture can be considered to have been a failure, either because they did not contain the rich blue, that the plates of the day required, as well as due to the chemical’s low intensity.

Other possibilities had to be explored. Nadar for example, photographed the sewers in Paris, using battery-operated lighting. Later the arc-lamps were introduced to aid photographers, but it was not until 1877 that the first studio using electric light was opened.

Powered by a gas-driven dynamo the studio by Van der Weyde in Regent Street, had the light sufficient to allow exposures of 2 to 3 seconds.

Flash Powder

Despite being quite a step forward in artificial lighting development, the early chemicals could not provide the satisfying result for the photos. Producing a shorter and therefore more predictable flash became the goal. There was one solution: magnesium.

In 1862 Edward Sonstadt began experiments to prepare the metal on a commercial basis and by 1864 magnesium wire was finally placed on sale.

The wire was extremely expensive, but following a successful demonstration in February the same year, where a photograph was produced in a darkened room in only 50 seconds, the highly actinic light proved ideal for photography and became incredibly popular.

The technology of the wire wasn’t too complicated. Magnesium was burned as a wire or ribbon twisted into tapers or clockwork lamps with a reflector. There were different lamp designs, each for different use. Despite different ways of using the magnesium, there were no ideal variant for this method.

Burning was often incomplete and unpredictable. Exposures varied considerably and the air remained laden with grey, opaque fumes, making the method unsuitable for studio use.

Even more, the technique was not without its obvious dangers and it also released a lot of smoke, smell and a fall-out of white ash.

Nevertheless, magnesium lamps gained in popularity through the 1870s and 1880s despite the expenses and danger. Trying to solve the unpredictability of the popular magnesium technique, Charles Piazzi Smyth, experimenting in the pyramids at Giza, Egypt, in 1865, had attempted to ignite magnesium mixed with gunpowder. The resulting picture was quite poor but the principle of combining magnesium with oxygen-rich chemical resulting in combustion was developed.

In 1887, Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke mixed fine magnesium powder with potassium chlorate to produce Blitzlicht. This was the first ever widely used flash powder. Blitzlicht gave the photographers the ability to produce instant photographs at night at a very high shutter speed. This caused quite an excitement in the photography world.

Being the explosive that it is, flash powder accidents were obviously inevitable. Simply grinding the components was dangerous enough, and a number of photographers died while either preparing the flash powder or setting it off.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the flash powder formula was refined and improvements were made to make the process simpler and safer. The flashes now lasted for 10 milliseconds only, so subjects no longer closed their eyes during the exposure which helped portrait photography.

There were still a sufficient amount of disadvantages to the method; for example, the smoke continued to cause trouble, making studio work quite difficult, so another invention was awaited.

Flash Bulbs

In his experiments in underwater photography in the 1890s, Louis Boutan – a French zoologist and a pioneer underwater photographer – used a cumbersome magnesium lamp. Powdered magnesium, sealed in a glass jar fixed to a lead-weighted barrel to supply oxygen during burning, was ignited by means of an alcohol lamp.

Paul Vierkötter used the same principle in 1925, when he ignited magnesium electronically in a glass globe. In 1929 the Vacublitz, the first true flashbulb made from aluminium foil sealed in oxygen, was produced in Germany by the Hauser Company using Johannes B. Ostermeier’s patents.

It was quickly followed by the Sashalite from the General Electric Company in the USA.

The flash bulb was an oxygen-filled bulb in which aluminium foil was burned, with ignition being accomplished by a battery. The light of the bulb, although powerful, was soft and diffused, therefore less dangerous to the eyes than flash powder.

Using a flash bulb produced neither noise nor smoke when the charge was fired. This provided an opportunity to using flash in places where flash powder use was questionable or simply dangerous. The first photos using the “Sashalite” flashbulb were published by The ‘Morning Post’.

The pictures were of the engine-room and other compartments of a submarine. These were not only interesting as unusual subjects, but they indicated a high technical standard. It was not to be until 1927, however, that the simple flash-bulb was to appear for sale.

Flashbulbs were a big step forward. They weighed little, were easily fired electrically and were extremely powerful and, therefore, convenient. Another important aspect of the technique was that it was extremely safe, especially compared to the widely used before flash powder.

§ Dry plate gelatine- 1870’s 80’s

Gelatin papers were introduced in the 1870s and started gaining acceptance in the 1880s and 1890s as the gelatin bromide papers became popular.

However, as with all technological innovations, the public increasingly demanded outdoor and candid photographs with enlarged prints which they could frame or smaller unmounted snapshots they could collect in scrapbooks.

In no small part owing to the immense popularity of the affordable Kodak Box Brownie camera, first introduced in 1900, the public increasingly began taking its own photographs and thus the popularity of the cabinet card declined.

When George Eastman introduced the Brownie camera in 1888, the family album really came into its own. People started taking a large amount of images (100 per camera load) and the freedom to take as many as they liked (but only outside in daylight, as flash had not yet been invented) released them from the formality of the studio. It was still an event to take photographs but it was not such an event as dressing up and making a day of the studio sitting had been. The affluent still took more photographs than the poorer classes as they had more money to refresh their camera and pay for development, but less well off families still had the opportunity to start creating their own family albums and recording their history, albeit at a slower pace. The ever expanding collections of photographs meant there was a need for expandable photograph albums. Explore the editing process, what went in and what stayed out of the albums when the amount of images was too large to put ALL in the album.

Eastman's experiments were directed to the use of a lighter and more flexible support than glass. His first approach was to coat the photographic emulsion on paper and then load the paper in a roll holder. The holder was used in view cameras in place of the holders for glass plates.

The first film advertisements in 1885 stated that "shortly there will be introduced a new sensitive film which it is believed will prove an economical and convenient substitute for glass dry plates both for outdoor and studio work."

This system of photography using roll holders was immediately successful. However, paper was not entirely satisfactory as a carrier for the emulsion because the grain of the paper was likely to be reproduced in the photo.

Eastman's solution was to coat the paper with a layer of plain, soluble gelatine, and then with a layer of insoluble light-sensitive gelatine. After exposure and development, the gelatine bearing the image was stripped from the paper, transferred to a sheet of clear gelatine, and varnished with collodion -- a cellulose solution that forms a tough, flexible film.

As he perfected transparent roll film and the roll holder, Eastman changed the whole direction of his work and established the base on which his success in amateur photography would be built.

Eastman's faith in the importance of advertising, both to the company and to the public, was unbounded. The very first Kodak products were advertised in leading papers and periodicals of the day -- with ads written by Eastman himself.

Eastman coined the slogan, "you press the button, we do the rest," when he introduced the Kodak camera in 1888 and within a year, it became a well-known phrase. Later, with advertising managers and agencies carrying out his ideas, magazines, newspapers, displays and billboards bore the Kodak banner.

Space was taken at world expositions, and the "Kodak Girl," with the style of her clothes and the camera she carried changing every year, smiled engagingly at photographers everywhere. In 1897, the word "Kodak" sparkled from an electric sign on London's Trafalgar Square -- one of the first such signs to be used in advertising.

In 1883, Eastman startled the trade with the announcement of film in rolls, with the roll holder adaptable to nearly every plate camera on the market. With the KODAK camera in 1888, he put down the foundation for making photography available to everyone.

The KODAK camera, pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures, could be easily carried and handheld during operation. It was priced at $25. After exposure, the whole camera was returned to Rochester. There the film was developed, prints were made and new film was inserted -- all for $10.

· 1891 - The company marketed its first daylight-loading camera, which meant that the photographer could now reload the camera without using a darkroom.

· 1900 - The first of the famous BROWNIE Cameras was introduced. It sold for $1 and used film that sold for 15 cents a roll. For the first time, the hobby of photography was within the financial reach of virtually everyone.

§ Journalism, print presses.

With the invention of hand held cameras and instant photo taking, the opportunity to take candid images became easier. Amateur photographers taking snapshot images became rife and complaints were heard far and wide. Detective cameras were used by many a photographer and the rise of pornography was made easier.

“By 1900 it was estimated that there were four million “camera fiends” who were “kodaking” everywhere and creating a major nuisance of themselves in the process of filling their albums.”

(Jay, 1991)

Bibliography

A World History of Art. Available at: http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography5.html.

Di Bello P. (2004) Ladies, mothers and flirts : women's photographic albums in Victorian England, c.1850-1880.

Green-Lewis J. (1996) Framing the Victorians : photography and the culture of realism, Ithaca, N.Y. ; London: Cornell University Press.

Jay B. (1988) Queen Victoria's Second Passion. Available at: http://www.billjayonphotography.com/QnVictoria2ndPassion.pdf.

Jay B. (1991) Cyanide & spirits : an inside-out view of early photography, Munich, Germany: Nazraeli Press.

Shrimpton J. (2011) Family photos: the family photo album. Available at: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/history-of-photos/.

Siegel E and Weidemeyer SE. (2009) Playing with pictures : the art of Victorian photocollage, Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago in association with Yale University Press.

Warrington M. (2012) The Scrap Album. Available at: http://www.scrapalbum.com/.

Struggling along

2012-05-05T05:56:00.001-07:00

Well here I am, fighting to find time to do everything I have to do.
Lists are my saviour. I now, however have 5 lists. And they grow faster than they shrink!
1. Research list- divided into Workbook and Writing
2. Case study list
3. Reading list
4. Ongoing jobs list
5. Critical Journal list- consisting of 7 tasks

I have found a lovely post-it note app on Google Chrome Store though. I now have post-its on my homepage that I add to and subtract from regularly. And they are right there when I fire up my laptop, so no more coming into the study to work and not knowing what to do. There are always a choice of tasks depending on my state of mind.
I'm still struggling with family life and work. The kids (and husband) have had the law laid down. If I'm in my study and the door is closed, I AM NOT TO BE DISTURBED. Not offered cups of tea, food, regaled with sob stories of teenage trauma, or any other distraction. If I want tea, I'll come and make it. When I emerge from the study, then you can engage me in conversation. Otherwise.....NOTHING. I do not exist to my family whilst in study mode!
It seems to be working. I wrote 6000 words on The History of The Victorian Album the other day. And now, I'm actually finding time to edit it! Oh the sense of achievement at the end of each working day.
When I've edited my 'History', I shall post it here.

On another topic, I started Slimming World 5 weeks ago and have lost 8lbs. Not that you're interested, but I'm quite pleased.

Today's Random Inspiration

2012-04-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Project proposal approved! Now what?

2012-03-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

YAY! So I officially have approval for my project. And I also think I have found my case study family. Now I am trying to make organised and categorised lists to aid in my brain organisation.
On another note.....I attended my first conference last week! I think I may be slightly addicted, after hearing so many wonderful and enlightening papers and meeting so many wonderful people with similar interests to me. It was at one point, quite surreal, as I found myself supping a lovely glass of wine in the company of Rosy Martin, Angela Kelly and the legendary Patricia Holland. The situation did not compute with my brain, and has taken a week to actually sink in. But I'm very pleased that I did not consume so much wine as to make a complete arse of myself in such highly regarded company. In fact, I think I even held my own in conversation about my work!
One of the conversations about my work was followed by Patricia Holland exclaiming that I was taking the baton from her, as her work is all based in the present and past, and mine is all about the future *smugness ensues*.
I have come away from the conference weekend with the overwhelming urge to get writing.
And I think one of the key questions of my research has further clues to investigate. Remember 'the missing magic'? It may well be anticipation.

Looking for case study subjects

2012-02-20T04:35:00.001-08:00

Having decided to base my research around case studies, I am now beginning to look for three generations (perhaps of the same family) to volunteer.
Ideally I would like someone born between 1920 and 1940, another born between 1950 and 1970 and finally someone born between 1985 and 1995.
If you know of a family that might be interested in helping me with my research based around the Family Album, please let me know.
Oh, and they need to be living in the South West of England!
Would will begin in April this year running until March next year and I would be spending about 3-4 months with each person conducting visits and interviews.

A little background about me.

2012-01-31T08:54:00.000-08:00

All these posts are very researchy aren't they?
I thought it might be an idea to place all this research against the background of my life, why I'm doing all this and how.
I am 42. I live in Cornwall with my husband Jon of 11 years and my three girls, Rhiannon (18), Shannon (16) and Ilona (9).
After a turbulent first marriage to Shannon's dad in Coventry, I returned to Cornwall in 1998. I met Jon in July '99 and soon after decided to return to education. I took Art A-level, then began Art and Design Foundation, during which I decided that Photography was my true love and left the course halfway through, had Ilona, and then returned to do Photography A-level in 2005. After that I stayed on to take Photography National Diploma.
That led to my University offer at Falmouth.
Just after learning of my University place Jon was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease. He was 37. We considered me declining the place, but decided that if I was going to do it, now was the only time I would be able to. He continued working to support me for the 3 years it took to get my degree.
My work at Uni centred around self portraiture and the family album and memory.
During the three years at Falmouth I used to dread essay writing and presenting my work. However, about a year after graduating, I realised that it was the thing I missed the most about my work.
So, I decided, after consideration for Jon (he was still working and doing well health wise) to apply to do a Masters degree at Plymouth University.
After the realisation that I loved writing, I decided that a research Masters was the way to go.
And you pretty much know the rest of the story!
Alongside my research work, I run the house and kids, and i have recently become involved with a charity, agreeing to have my head shaved on the 25th Feb. Yikes! Anyway, a little boy's health and happiness is far more important than my vanity. I can wear a hat!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Well-Wishers-Fundraising/242829942459022
I'm also in the process of assembling my own PROPER family album (actually more a cross between photo album and scrapbook). It gives me plenty to think about while I'm reading and writing about it! I hope to be putting together some case studies for my thesis work.

Finally......here are some of my old family photos that will be going in my album.

Me and my sister 1975

My Mum and Dad. 1969

The family. 1976

My little sis. 1977

Family Christmas. 1971

My and my Daddy. 1974

A Penny for your thoughts?

2012-01-23T01:50:00.000-08:00

At some point soon, I'm going to have to survey people about their thoughts and ideas behind the concepts of the family album, past and future.
I'm getting a fair few visitors to this blog, but not much feedback so far. So I thought I'd be more direct and ask for your opinions. Please be kind and take a few minutes to let me know the following:

Do you keep a physical family/photo album? Did you start it yourself or has it been passed down the family?
Where do you store your photos now? In albums? Online in folders? Why?
Do you have any opinions about which is better for you and why?
Do you miss printed photos?

I hope some of you who read this will let me know your thoughts. It will really help me to start asking the right questions and delving deeper into the subject.
Someone asked me the other day what I thought the difference was between the physical photo and the digital image.
The easiest way for me to describe what the difference means to me, is to imagine deleting a photo online.....now, imagine tearing up a photo. What does the difference mean to you?

Just a thought.

Practice based or theory based?

2012-01-13T03:26:00.000-08:00

OK.........so the project is taking a different tack.....again!
My research not longer requires me to support it with practice, I shall be doing a theory based written piece of work that stands on it's own. This means that instead of taking photos and producing an exhibition piece alongside my 12,000 word thesis, I will produce a 30,000 word thesis and no supporting practice work.
This is a relief because I've been struggling lately to find an adequate reason to produce practice based work that will adequately support my written work. My argument does not need supporting with practice any more.
I am in the process of revising my proposal to reflect this change.
I'll keep you posted!

The methods and methodologies quandary

2012-01-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

This is my project revised.

What I want to do

What has the digital age meant to the Family Album?

Having completed earlier projects in the area of family album, I would like to explore this further, on a larger scale and in greater depth. I would like to explore the effects of the digital age of photography and computing on the traditional analogue and storage of family photos and mementos and the reasons for the change. Is it all about convenience and ease? If so, is it worth what has been lost? Do people even realise what society is losing as a price for their convenience?

I would like to further my understanding of the objectification of the photograph and discover how this is changing almost daily with the introduction of social networking and digital imaging and storage. I would like to explore the loss of the treasured object and perhaps how it can be regained to work alongside our new technologies. My aim is to define what exactly it is that has been lost (if it can be defined) and explore how, if at all, it can be rediscovered.

Having purchased a wedding album on eBay, my ideal project would be to follow the history of the album, tracing the family and working with them to rediscover their memories, whilst documenting by means of analogue photographs, cine film and audio recordings.

As the cooperation of the family is paramount to this project going ahead, and I have not yet had contact back from them since I wrote them a letter before Christmas, I have put into place an alternative working plan.

I will work on my own, tracing my own family history throughout the UK, tracing people that I have lost contact with, or indeed that I have never met before. Following the same lines as above, I would work on recollecting memories, and documenting the communications involved by letter, photos (old and new), audio and cinefilm. My plan is to go back to my Grandparents, then work across siblings and back down to my generation, discovering second and third cousins, who may have similar memories of people and places to me. This will involve travel to Scotland (where my roots are based), to study and research family history, meeting and spending time with the people I discover, recording meetings and photographing as well as collating pre-existing photographs and documents and communicating by letters. It may involve visits to other parts of the UK, dependant on what I discover during the research. I plan to use as little digital technology as possible, to emphasise the loss of the object in the telling of family history. It’s all about the process of recording memory. Has memory been discarded? Is it no longer trusted? What is trusted instead, if anything?

I would like my written thesis to concentrate on the future of family album in the digital age, and my practical work to be more about what has been lost and how it can be regained, thus supporting my written work.

I would like to review my work periodically using exhibitions to gauge responses from the public and my peers outside and within the university. I would expect this to help me understand whether my work holds any interest to the wider public as I view my work as of public interest.

I would like my final outcome to be in the form of a book and an installation exhibition of the final selected work.

Ideally, if I have worked with the family who the wedding album belongs to, I would invite them to the final exhibition and present them with their original wedding album and a history of the project they have been key in creating.

The Curiosity Box

2011-12-30T06:10:00.000-08:00

In my recent dalliances with Twitter, I found this lovely website.
I'm so looking forward to getting involved with them and perhaps having a lovely conversation by letter.
I think their opinions will be really useful for my project.
Excited at all the pretty things!
http://thecuriositybox.blogspot.com

Back to work!

2011-12-27T04:49:00.000-08:00

OK, enough Christmas shenanigans. Besides, if I drink any more, I will definitely have kidney failure.
So, I'm writing up my methods and methodologies for the next 2 years. Which, to any non-university people means, I've messed around with the ideas for this project so much, I now have to rewrite my project proposal, as it's completely different than what I was accepted on the course with!
This is as far as I've got! These are my themes that I plan to explore.

The family album

The future

Memory

Letters vs email

The value of the object

Digital age vs past

Storage- boxes vs computer files

Project- Patricia and me

Visiting old memories, places, people.

Recording recollections

Cine film, old film cameras

How do we recover the missing magic

It's not looking good at the moment is it? I've had a week off which has been lovely, but now my brain is having problems shifting back into gear. It must be all the rich food (and maybe has something to do with the alcohol).

I still haven't heard from Patricia, but I'm making plans around that idea to allow for any eventuality. It would be lovely to work with her for this project, but if it all goes pear-shaped, I shall be working the same ideas with my personal family history. Visiting old places, people and memories. Recording recollections orally and visually. Writing letters. And at the same time, my main body of writing will be exploring the ideas of the loss of the object in the digital age, the future of the family album and how it might be regained.

It's a lot to think about, but it's a whole two years. It's nice to get my teeth into something that I can run with, not worrying about deadlines in 6 weeks.

The Waiting Game

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

OK, starting to get slightly antsy now (this is quite normal for me).
I sent the letter before the weekend. It had my phone numbers and address on. How long shall I wait for a response?
If she was going to ring, surely she would have by now.
But then, if she's writing a letter, I should wait at least a week before stressing out.
I can't help thinking though, that I won't get anything back. I know I worry a lot, about nearly everything, but I do try to keep faith in people.
Oh, I'm so confused!
I'll wait for a week, then start thinking about how this project should proceed if she doesn't want to know.
Everyone cross your fingers for me!

The Night Mail

2011-12-11T04:01:00.000-08:00

Wandering around Eden a couple of nights ago, I came across a couple of lines of this poem. It defines everything I believe is being lost in the modern age of email. It's magic. Enjoy!

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from the girl and the boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers' declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Notes from overseas to Hebrides
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep
Dreaming of terrifying monsters,
Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston's or Crawford's:
Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
And shall wake soon and long for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

W H Auden

Friday 9th December

2011-12-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

I have just composed my letter to Patricia.
It is written on handmade textured paper, in a matching envelope. I believe in writing proper letters, by hand, on nice paper. It's all about the object for me! Oh and I won't start ranting about how hard it is to buy nice writing paper and envelopes any more (but it is impossible!).
I had to be quite gentle and tactful in the letter, as I spoke to someone yesterday, who pointed out that getting a random letter from a complete stranger, saying they have your wedding album and they've been tracing you, might be construed as 'creepy'.
I can see their point. I can only hope that she's not easily freaked out, and that curiosity gets the better of her. After all, that's why I started all this........curiosity. It is the bane and the blessing of most artists.
Now.....everybody cross their fingers, I'm off to the post box.

Update to 7th Dec

2011-12-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I decided that things would be much easier if I paid someone to trace Patricia.
I ordered the trace, I paid my money and waited.
I expected it to be a couple of days at least, so imagine my shock and surprise when about 2 hours after my order went through, I had a lovely email from someone called David at the tracing service, complete with a current address for Patricia!
Writing implements out! Lovely writing paper out! (This is vital to my project as it links in with the idea of treasured objects. Email is the current equivalent of the digital album. Type, send, read then throw away. I like letters, especially pretty ones that someone has taken time over. You want to keep them).
Oh look, I'm digressing again! I shall have a letter sent by the weekend!

7th December. The brick wall

2011-12-07T05:58:00.000-08:00

Argh! It has happened. I have hit a brick wall of doom!
The family records are either very thin on the ground viz a viz the genealogy site, or the family didn't get married or have any children, therefore letting the family die out needlessly! I mean, do they not realise what I'm trying to do?
i think a lot of the problem is that after the 60's and 70's it became more common to have children out of wedlock, and a lot easier to move around the country (and indeed abroad). Hence, the records are extremely hard to trace and keep track of.
As I'm realising the work is getting harder and harder, I have decided to be sensible about this (or cheat, as some might call it), and hand over to some professionals. I have paid for a person trace on Patricia.
They say I will know within 7 days, and they will refund me if a) they cannot find her, or b) she's not the person I'm looking for.
I hasten to add, this is not one of those 'sneaky detective agencies' where they spy on the family and take photos, no....this is a full disclosure service, where they contact anyone they can to find out what I want.
i did this for 2 reasons. 1- It feels more honest and 2- It was a lot cheaper for some reason (maybe it costs more to hide in bushes, or maybe it's all those trenchcoats, dark sunglasses and false noses).
Fact is, if they find the missing Patricia, I don't care how they do it. I dearly want to write her a long letter (I'm already composing it in my head).
I think I was born in the wrong era.

6th December. 2011

2011-12-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

Well, back to the search today.
More digging in the pool of genealogy. Interesting always, but tiring.
Realised I have to go back before I go forward in history. The key might not be in the direct family members, but in cousins, Aunts and Uncles. So I shall be spreading the net a little wider.
Also searching on Facebook, Friends Reunited and 192.com (although that's proving quite pricey).
I think a visit to London in the new year might be in order. If all else fails, I have the address they lived at until 2003. I could just trawl the street, knocking on doors to see if anyone remembers them. Here's hoping!

The initial idea

2011-12-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

OK, here goes.
I'm a middle aged woman doing a Research Masters in photography. My plan is to explore the ideas behind the family album and the future of it.
When will people realize that they're not leaving anything for the future generation?
You take hundreds of pictures on your fancy digital camera, then what? You delete all the rubbish ones before you even get home, then you upload them to an obscure file on the computer, most likely never to be looked at again. Very, very rarely, we might print one or two out, but they don't go into an album. They maybe get pasted onto the wall or put in a wallet.
What has happened to the joy of the actual, physical photo album...with actual, real, physical photos that you can touch? Remember them?
Anyhow, I digress. This was my idea.......until.......I bought an old wedding photo album from eBay, just as an interesting idea to go with my family album Resurrection plan.
The album is from a wedding in Stratford, London, dated 1965. In the back of the album is the photo of the marriage certificate, in all it's brilliant clarity. It was just asking me (begging me really!), to trace these people and return their wedding album to them.
I mean there are so many questions! Why did they get rid of their album? How did it end up with me?
So instead of following my family history, my plan is now to trace the couple in the photos, ask them if I can do the history thing with their family tree.
I am now learning the ropes of genealogy sites, slowly. Going back seems to be quite easy. Finding out where they are now will be the harder part.Wish me luck, and in the mean time....if any of you know the whereabouts of Patricia Ann O'Leary (nee Fleet) and /or James Dennis O'Leary around the East End of London, help me with my quest please!