Voices From the Past.... Instant Ancestors

A couple years ago, I started collecting vintage photographs.  Antique stores, flea markets, eBay, thrift stores.... It always amazes me that people's personal photographs end up in boxes and bins, for sale and for others to profit from.  I just can't understand... who gets rid of their photographs? For someone as passionate about documenting life photographically as I am, I just don't understand it.  I've purchased entire boxes of photographs, which have included full wedding albums, baby photos, snapshots, photos in beautiful cardboard frames, tintypes, international photos, photos of people's Christmas trees, vacations... if you can imagine it, I've found it and I've purchased it.  Some have writing on the fronts and/or backs and some are left up to our imagination.  It's a shame that those memories aren't still being cherished by the original owners loved ones, but I will enjoy them and I will claim them as mine... as my instant ancestors. We all have stories, and these images tell stories from days past.  Stories that shouldn't be forgotten, memories that should live on.  I will share them with you, my blog readers.  I'd love to hear what you see when you look at these images.  What stories come to your mind? What are the subjects thinking or feeling?

This image makes me smile because photographers posing their subjects on railroad tracks is a pretty popular current trend in the photography industry.  I can imagine how adventurous and daring this girl felt as this image was being shot!  I bet she was having the time of her life....  with that big smile on her face, cute jacket and rolled up jeans!

I also want to share with you this adorable display of "Instant Relatives" at an antique shop in Waseca, Minnesota.  So creative, so vintage and so super cute!

Stay tuned for for more "Voices From the Past".  I have hundred of photographs waiting to have their stories told!