An intriguing photograph of my grandmother
Old photos can be treasure troves of information. They can also be very frustrating when the details about them haven't been handed down with the image. Just who were those people? Were they close relatives or friends or was the photo one sent to a member of our family by someone they knew who lived in another country?
I have a number of copies of photos in my collection that have no provenance. There were no helpful names noted on the back of the originals, they are just what appear to be studio images of single young women. Too bad there weren't more clues to give me a head start.
But there are usually more clues than are realized at first glance. A fascinating book about the subject of what can be found out from photographs is The Dead Horse Investigation: Forensic Photo Analysis for Everyone by Colleen Fitspatrick. It would be a good idea to use some of the techniques listed in the book to get more information about the photos that I have been able to identify. It seems like another in-depth technique similar to using the genealogical proof standard - a lot of work, but sure to pay dividends if you do it right.
Those techniques might be able to tell me a lot more about the photo of my grandmother which you can see above. Unfortunately, it was given to me when my grandmother was no longer with us so I couldn't go to the source to ask where it was taken, why it was taken and who owned the car. As she lived in both Canada and England during her life, it would be good to know even the country where it was taken. No matter how deep my analysis goes, however, I will never know why Gran was behind the wheel. Did she drive at one time or was this a shot taken in fun? In all the time that I knew her, I never saw my grandmother drive a car. I guess that goes to show that photographs can misled as well as enlighten.
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