You don`t aways get what you want !!

I won an ebay auction recently for 100 people cards and I was eagerly awaiting their arrival. When they arrived a couple of days ago I discovered they were all German. Although the quality was extremely good I only collect British cards ( although some foreign ones may have slipped through).

Fortunately the seller has agreed to take them back and refund me the price as she did not mention the fact that they were foreign in the auction listing.
Never mind, I might stop buying more cards until I have finished dealing with the ones I have....famous last words !!

Image sizes on Flickr

One of my contacts on Flickr suggested that I increase the image size that I upload as it would give more detail. Not being one to ignore advice I have given it a go and have mixed feelings about the result. I have just obtained an external hard drive with another 250gb so the extra memory required is not a problem but although you can now see much more detail you can also see more of the imperfections that these cards inevitably have.

Overall I think that maybe it is a good change to make and the extra detail outweighs the other problem so I will continue with the larger size.

I have to admit that I have been " cherry picking " the cards that I have been uploading recently which is not what I intended at the outset of this project so today I have gone through 20 cards and just uploaded them without sorting. Some might not be as interesting as others but it gets me back on track with my original intentions.

Forgotten Ostrich !!

I get some nice emails from many of the people who view my postcards on flickr and sometimes get sent pictures to look at. I received a mail today from Eric with a link to a picture on Flickr. He thought I could put it on my blog ! So Eric, although not stictly in keeping with the other images here it is...a forgotten ostrich ...


Thanks for that Eric, its really a great image from the past.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

New year

Well, its now 2008 and I have just started uploading again and hope to reach 1000 photo`s by the end of Jan. I uploaded a few recently purchased cards yesterday and have a mountain still to go through.
The site is still being visited on a regular basis and is now coming up to 15000 views. I have recently installed a couple of add ons to the site which provide some statistics of how the site is viewed. You can see one of them in a graph form on my profile page.

So, lots to do in the new year and lots more postcards to buy !!

A happy new year to anyone who reads this blog.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

A quick update

Well, not had much time to udate this blog recently. Been uploading a lot more cards and I am aiming at having 1000 by the end of January.
Its difficult when sorting through my cards which ones to upload and which ones to leave. I did promise myself that I would put all of them on Flickr apart from the really damaged ones but I just can`t help being a bit selective.

Coming up to 13000 views on the site now so that is very pleasing. Also I have recently purchased some very nice cards. My recent favourite is this one showing people on a horse and carriage outside St Petrocs Boarding House in Ilfracome, North Devon. Thanks to one of my contacts I was able to discover the exact name of the house shown on the card.



I have also been contacted by the Curator of Photographic Technology at the National Media Museum in Bradford. He is staging an exhibition next year on Street and Beach Photography and I have agreed in principle to lend him some of my cards. I will update on that later next year.

With Christmas just around the corner I will not be doing too much on Flickr but early in the new year I shall be striving to hit the magic 1000 images uploaded.

A stroke of luck !

I have just recently received two separate lots of cards that I won on an online auction. They were both from the same seller and as I was sorting through them I discovered two cards of the same family but each of these cards was in a different lot. Now, if I hadn`t have won both lots these two cards would have been separated for ever. This would have been a tragedy as they show a families children growing up.
So, any postcard dealers reading this please take note...try and sort through your lots and try and keep any related cards together. It is important as I think we all have a responsibility to the people and families depicted on these cards.

Read about these children on my Flickr site.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

A bit of a mystery !

I have noticed that one of my cards has attracted a lot of interest over the last few days and I am trying to work out why !
It is a nice card but I can`t work out why it has had over 300 views in such a short space of time.

The photo was taken on Bank Holiday 1914 so if this was August Bank Holiday it may be linked to the outbreak of World War One as Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914 and as we have just had Rememberance Sunday it could possibly explain the interest shown. Other than that I am mystified !

Past the 10,000

Well, today the views on my Photostream at Flickr have past the 10,000 mark which is pleasing to me as it makes all the scanning and uploading worthwhile. I am pleased that people like to look at these pictures from the past and gives me encouragement to continue with this project.

Oh no ! Another Favourite....

Just when I thought I had chosen my favourite card of the last few days another one turns up in the post !!
This is close to the top of my favourite card list. Check out the details on my Flickr site. Link below..


Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Favourite card of the last few days

I have purchased a few cards over the last few days and some arrived at the weekend. Out of them all this is my favourite card from the last few days.
Although the poor horse looks to be in a sorry state ( I have a feeling its not real anyway ) this photo is a real piece of social histry.



Currently 9445 views on my photostream at Flickr

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Colourizing my black and white photos

Well I have just received a mail from the guy who asked if he could colourize some of my black & white postcards to tell me that he has completed some and overall I am pleased with the result. It does bring them to life and although I prefer the original black and white image it has been interesting to see what these people may have really looked like at the time. I have uploaded the images here.
What do you think ?






Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Colourizing my black and white photos

I had an interesting email the other day about my photos on Forgotten Faces. It was from a fellow Flickr member who likes to restore and colourize black and white photos. He has asked me if he can colourize some of my photos and gave me the link to his web site where he displays the end result.

Well, I had a look and must say that I was very impressed. The colour, in most cases is very natural and does seem to bring the photos to life. Although I prefer the original black and white image I have given permission for this person to colourize some. It will be interesting to see the results and I will upload them to this blog.

Check out his pictures here

This is just one image that I have borowed to put on here...






Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Currently 8619 views on my photostream at Flickr

The most popular card on my photostream

Flickr keeps track of all the views and comments made on your uploaded images and gives you a list of the most popular. There is an overall " most popular " based on the amount of views each picture gets and the amount of comments left and there is a " most popular " just based on views alone.
The most popular card on Forgotten Faces is the one shown here and it comes out on top in both scenarios.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

My favourite card of the week

Just been having a look at some of the cards I have uploaded to Flickr over the last few days and have decided that this is my favourite card of the week. They look so relaxed and so naturally happy. Two very attractive ladies in their own way.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Time and money

I know I have said it before but it takes so long to scan, upload, describe and tag a batch of postcards. I just wish I could could spend longer each day on this project. However computers can be pretty anti social and my other half has already said that when I am on here I am in a world of my own !! She is right of course and that is why I try and limit myself to just an hour or so a day.
Imagine what it would be like if I was doing this for a living...heaven !!

When I first started collecting these cards it seemed that I was the only one interested in them but over the last few months they have been harder to get at a bargain price. I try to buy bulk lots other than the odd nice card that is being sold on its own and you could get 40 to 50 cards for £4 or £5 but now you could pay up to £15 to £20 for the same cards. Buying them at postcard fairs is even more expensive.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

More uploads

Well, over the last couple of days I have managed to get a few more postcards scanned and uploaded to Flickr. There has been a steady interest in the new Vintage Seaside group and I have also managed to put a few more on there as well.
I will be pressing on this week with more scanning and uploading and apart from buying the odd card or two I think I will wait now untill I have worked my way through the cards that I have before buying any more ! ( famous last words ! ).

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Sidetracked !

Well, despite saying the new group on Flickr should look after itself I have been sidetracked these last couple of days answering posts and looking at pictures that members have uploaded. We are up to 22 members now and it seems to be a popular subject.

I will get back to Forgotten Faces soon and my scanner will be whirring again !

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

A New Group on Flickr

Well, despite the fact that I have so much to do on Forgotten faces I have just created a group on Flickr called Vintage Seaside

Old seaside photos and postcards of people on holiday are favourites of mine so thought it might be a good idea to start this group.

I think the it will pretty much look after itself and I will drop by every day for a quick look just to make sure everything is in order.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

My Last Post

Not sure if I like the layout of my last post about Post Mortem Photography. Looks a bit stretched out and needs tidying up so I will have a look at that later.

I did say ealier this week that I would try and scan and upload around 10 postcards every day but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. On the other hand if I upload too many in a short space of time they get buried and not seen by as many people. The pictures on the first page of the photostream seem to get more hits than those on later pages so it might be an idea to leave some time between uploading batches.

I really must spend some time looking at my contacts pictures. People make you a contact because they like the images in your collection so I should make a big effort to check out their pictures. So, maybe at some point this weekend I will devote some time to that.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Post Mortem Photography

Some while ago a comment was left on one of my pictures suggesting that the image could in fact be a post mortem photograph. I always thought that this picture of a baby did not look quite right and I think that the suggestion may well be correct.

I may well be doing this image , seen above, a great injustice but it is a possibility.

Facinated by the thought of grieving parents taking their recently deceased child to the photographers for that final photograph I did some research on this subject.

In Victorian and early Edwardian times the infant mortality rate was high and in fact life expectancy in general was far less than it is today. Parents may not have had their child photographed when they were alive and in the event of a sudden death would have rushed the body along to a photographers to have a photograph taken as a reminder of their child.
Some of these photographs were tastefully done showing the obviously deceased child laying on a bed surrounded by flowers and apparently asleep. However, if the family did not have a photograph of their child or family member when they were alive they would instruct the photographer to give the impression that the deceased was still alive at the time of the photograph.

One of the first parts of the body to deteriorate after death are the eyes and many photographers became expert at painting false eyes on to closed eye lids. Some photographers were more skilled than others at this macabre task.









The picture on the left shows how this skill has been applied and the photograph has even been tinted to achieve a more "alive" look.















This next picture shows a young deceased boy who has been strapped to the chair for the photograph.










When the deceased were older much greater ingenuity was used to give the impression that they were alive in the photograph. Frames were built to support the deceased and supporting rods would be inserted through the back of their clothing.

In this next picture the girl in the middle of the photograph is dead and is supported by a frame behind her.

The woman in the middle of this final picture is also dead and is being supported by what could be her sisters.

I find this whole subject macabre, gruesome, spooky but totally facinating !

If you would like to see more of this subject then I have discovered a web site that features many post mortem photographs so just click the link below to visit. It is a kind of photo sharing site that you can register with for free and then be able to download any pictures you want.

Post Mortem Photography Site

Forgotten Faces at Flickr