Victorian Ladies with Cameras

By the time I knew her she was what used to be called a proper spinster lady. She and two of her similarly unmarried sisters lived in "Papa's house" in Massachusetts and I loved visiting that big old rambling Victorian home with the books, the piano, the Vue Master (with its pictures of the pyramids and the other wonders of the world), and their cats. To my eyes it was all quite exotic though eccentric is probably just as apt a description.

I was too young to understand that I shouldn't have a favorite so, of course, I had one - my great-aunt Ethel. I remember her as a dreamer, a lover of great books, and patient and encouraging to a quiet young boy who loved books and was a dreamer too. What I remember most about her though was she always had her camera nearby.

Most of the photographs I have of my childhood were taken by two important people in my life. My mother's brother, my uncle Bud, with his Leica cameras and my great-aunt with her Kodak. Uncle Bud produced some quite professional portraits. Most of Aunt Ethel's photos were joyful snapshots of little kids on the farm, snapshots that still have the power to bring me back sixty years or more and smile.

This one though, taken of my sister and me in the yard behind their house, is the exception. It's moody, posed, more "artistic" than spontaneous and its mystery fascinates me. That I suppose is why it's my favorite. It makes me wish that I, as an adult, could go back in time and ask her about dreams, unrequited love, and photography.

... and the adventure continues.