Serene Woman and Baby

A truly lovely, peaceful photo of a woman and child. The color of this photo is just beautiful and very rich.

Date unknown.


[the specifics]
This photo is available in three sizes:

a) The photo is 2.5 x 3.5 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 4 x 6 paper.

b) The photo is 3.875 x 5.25 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 5 x 7 paper.

c) The photo is 5.25 x 7 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 8 x 10 paper.

Buy this photo at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.

Lost & Found Photos

Lost & Found Photos (TheCameraObscuraEtc.blogspot.com) is my new blog -- a companion blog to this one. In it I will post images of the many, many photos in my collection that I love, but for which I don't have plans to make reproductions to sell in my Etsy shop. These are some of my favorite photographs, but not necessarily the kind I would expect mixed-media artists to purchase to use in their work. However if at any time you see an image in Lost & Found Photos of which you would like a reproduction, you can contact me, and I can have a custom print made for you.

Connor

Connor and friend. What happened to Connor’s nose?

I adore this photo. Look at the pose, and the symmetry of the two boys and the two horses. Where are they going and where have they come from? The friend wears a U.S. Army / Air Force t-shirt. Are they military? On leave? Just what is their story?

Date unknown.


[the specifics]
This photo is available in three sizes:

a) The photo is 2.5 x 3.5 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 4 x 6 paper.

b) The photo is 3.625 x 4.125 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 5 x 7 paper.

c) The photo is 4.875 x 6.875 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 8 x 10 paper.

Buy this photo at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.

Woman on the Rocks

A lovely, hand-tinted portrait of a woman sitting on a large rock in a field, surrounded by other standing stones. She wears gloves, boots, a wide-brimmed hat, and a coat with fur-trimmed collar and cuffs. The palette of colors in this photo is subtle and delicate.

The rocks by which she is surrounded cause me to wonder if this is a photo from Great Britain or Ireland, though the location is unknown. She has a slight Mona-Lisa-esque smile and a distant expression. I think this photo would make a beautiful foundation for a collage or assemblage.

Date unknown.


[the specifics]
This photo is available in four sizes:

a) The photo is 2.125 x 3.25 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 4 x 6 paper.

b) The photo is 3.25 x 4.875 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 5 x 7 paper.

c) The photo is 4.25 x 6.5 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 5 x 7 paper.

d) The photo is 6.25 x 9.5 inches (vertical). The reproduction is printed on 8 x 10 paper.

Buy this photo at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.

Four Generations

Three women and a baby. I’m not positive, but it looks to me like four generations. A mother with her baby in her arms, her mother (the baby’s grandma), and HER mother (great-grandma). In any case, they all have the same expression on their face, including the baby.

I love this photo because it is surreal and yet so perfectly “normal.” It is one of those old photographs that really sends me thinking about who these people are: what were their lives like, were they happy, were they hard-working, what hardships did they face? Then it is offset by the sadly funny sternness of the four generations, and it is like seeing through time -- what that baby will look like in 25 years, 50, 75?…

The back is stamped: Hammond / “The photographer in your town” / Porterville, California / Mar 25 1947


[the specifics]
This photo is available in two sizes:

a) The photo, with its original border, is 5.25 x 9 inches (horizontal). The reproduction is printed on 8 x 10 paper.

b) The photo, with its original border, is 3.5 x 6 inches (horizontal). The reproduction is printed on 5 x 7 paper.

Buy this photo at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.

Two Vintage Letters with Envelopes, amazing handwriting, digital hi-resolution scans (CameraObscura CD no. 2)

Letter and envelope #1:






Letter and envelope #2:





This CD contains hi-resolution scans of two vintage letters and their accompanying envelopes. Both are to the same gentleman, but 15 years apart. Both are in beautiful fountain-pen handwriting, and could be used in a multitude of ways as textured elements or backgrounds for collage and mixed-media artwork.

1) A letter written 12 May 1907, to “Nephew.” The author (Uncle?) had just returned from Shanghai. While the letter was sent from the United States (from and to San Francisco), it is written on stationery from the Central Hotel, Shanghai. The paper is quite thin, somewhat transparent, and has an excellent red-orange letterhead. The letter is one sheet, but 4 pages total; it opens like a book and so pages 2 and 3 are written on the inside, while page 1 is the front and page 4 the back. (Approximately 5 x 8.5 inches vertical [closed], 10 x 8.5 inches horizontal [open].)

The accompanying envelope is a faded olive green, and says “Palace Hotel, Shanghai” on the back. Cancellation: 7 June 1907, San Francisco. (Approximately 3 x 6 inches horizontal.)

2) A letter written 26 June 1922, to “Dearest.” The author is writing while on a train (“…many people in the car – no one interesting.”). One sheet, written on front and back. (5 x 8 inches vertical.)

The accompanying envelope has a “Southern Pacific Lines” logo on the back. Cancellation: 1922, San Francisco. (3.5 x 5.5 inches horizontal.)


[the specifics]
Camera Obscura's goal is to supply high-quality reproductions of vintage ephemera for artists to use in their own mixed-media, collage, assemblage, and altered-photo artwork. These scans are of original pieces from my collection.

- The scans are at 300dpi (press-quality), full-color RGB mode, each at the dimensions of the original plus a half-inch white border.
- Separate scans of the front and back of each envelope, and each page of each letter, so 9 scans total
- Each scan is supplied in TIFF and JPEG format, so the CD contains 18 files in all.

Need just one scan, or need it right away? Letters and envelopes are also available as JPEG files for download (instead of shipped on CD) in my Etsy Shop.

Buy this CD at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.

Vintage Postcards and Envelope, digital hi-resolution scans (CameraObscura CD no. 1)

This CD contains hi-resolution scans of two vintage postcards and one vintage envelope.

1) French postcard to Monsieur Montagu, Pharmacien de 1er classe. An original postcard from the 1890s, offering a free sample of “Dragees Hecnet.” (3.5 x 5 inches, horizontal).

2) German postcard to Paul Maslowski, of an export company in Bonn, about (I think) beads; original, dated 8 March 1921. (3.5 x 5.5 inches, horizontal).

3) Envelope sent to Berkeley, CA, from the Grand Hotel Bellagio, Venice, postmarked 1896. This original envelope has two beautiful blue engravings on the front, and a decorative stamp that says “Saluti da Venezia” on the back. (4.5 x 5.75 inches, horizontal).


[the specifics]
Camera Obscura's goal is to supply high-quality reproductions of vintage ephemera for artists to use in their own mixed-media, collage, assemblage, and altered-photo artwork. These scans are of original pieces from my collection.

- The scans are at 300dpi (press-quality), full-color RGB mode, each at the dimensions of the original plus a half-inch white border.
- Separate scans of front and back of each piece -- six different scans total.
- Each scan is supplied in TIFF and JPEG format, so the CD contains 12 files in all.

Need just one scan, or need it right away? Each postcard and the envelope are also available as JPEG files for download (instead of shipped on CD) in my Etsy shop.

Buy this CD at the Camera Obscura Etsy shop.