All of us have seen numerous photos from the 19th century of stern faces of families gathered around a Victorian gingerbread mansion or a sod house on the prairie. For some of those people, I have no doubt, that may have been the only picture taken of them in their entire lifetimes. Even when cameras became more ubiquitous in the 20th century, film and film development was expensive enough that we were careful not to "waste" shots. Of course digital photography changed all that and poor results can simply be deleted. Which means we take a lot more pictures and can waste some shots on silliness.
In my two steps forward, one step back effort to pare down my belongings, I have been through a lot of old slides and photos. I have been struck by the trend from the somber faces of the 1800s to smiling. but still posed, portraits of the mid 1900s to the whimsical groupings of today. In 1980, we celebrated my mother's sixtieth birthday. She came down for the weekend and we had a lovely dinner in Iowa City, took her to a performance of The King and I at Hancher, and then surprised her with arrangements to have a photographer, who was also a friend of my brothers, to take a formal family picture at the Iowa Memorial Union. When the photographer finished, he said "I've always wanted to do this, but I know you people well enough to ask. Everyone turn around and face the wall." Hence the picture above, which is the one I have framed.
In my two steps forward, one step back effort to pare down my belongings, I have been through a lot of old slides and photos. I have been struck by the trend from the somber faces of the 1800s to smiling. but still posed, portraits of the mid 1900s to the whimsical groupings of today. In 1980, we celebrated my mother's sixtieth birthday. She came down for the weekend and we had a lovely dinner in Iowa City, took her to a performance of The King and I at Hancher, and then surprised her with arrangements to have a photographer, who was also a friend of my brothers, to take a formal family picture at the Iowa Memorial Union. When the photographer finished, he said "I've always wanted to do this, but I know you people well enough to ask. Everyone turn around and face the wall." Hence the picture above, which is the one I have framed.
A few years later in 1988, we decided to commemorate our silver wedding anniversary and the 100th birthday of our house by having professional pictures taken. Again, we had the traditional grouping of the whole family plus shots of just the kids and also of Butch and me. But through the whole afternoon, our granddaughter Brooke, then 3, refused to smile. This child had always seemed to have been programmed at birth to break into a beaming smile any time a camera was pointed at her, but not that day. We called to our neighbor Karel to come over and make Brooke laugh. She appeared in a gorilla costume (doesn't everyone have one laying around?) but as you can see, Brooke did not find it humorous. We then included the gorilla in the photo, told everyone to make a face, and ended up with this gem.
Whenever the Nortman family gathered, my mother-in-law always wanted a photo of just her seven children--no spouses. (Perhaps she was afraid that we were better looking.) So began a long tradition of always taking an "outlaw" picture. This one is probably out of focus because the outlaws are also the better photographers.
What's in your albums?
What's in your albums?
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