135 years of history...

Helen (3yrs), Warwara Posashova, and Ludmilla Bogdanoff

Pictured here is my Grandmother (Helen), perched in the lap of her Great Grandmother, Warwara.  On the right is Helen's half sister, Ludmilla.  Here is a part of my family, c. 1935.  What I enjoyed about scanning these images is reading the variety of poses, from casual to formal, but mostly just a little off in focus, or a touch of motion blur.  It says a lot about the speed of photography.  We take for granted the quick satisfaction of digital photography, and I see a more casual yet controlled environments of these photographs.  The camera was very new in some of these images, and my family was lucky to have even owned one!

Imagine for a moment being the photographer, fidgeting with the controls, at the point in time where learning photography had only recently reached the hand of the amateur.  Imagine sitting for the image, not knowing how long to wait, that awkward moment (even among family) before the eye of the camera blinks the exposure onto film.  Anti climactic, the image is still a mystery.

My grandmother is the focus of most of the images that I have recently digitized, but here I selected a variety to give a broader sense of the early years of her family life, before war.

Carriage in front of the barn

Ludmilla

Helen

Ludmilla and her mother, Ludmilla, Valentine (half brother) before Helen was born.

Ludmilla, Helen, and Valentine

Ludmilla Klimenko (maiden name), Helen's mother

Ludmilla Klimenko

Alexandra Posashova, Helen's grandmother 1875

The oldest photograph happens to not be a reprint, and still has a original emblem from the French photographer based in Odessa.  You can see the stand behind Alexandra's feet, which would have connected to a cradle at the base of the head to hold the body still.  The photo is very worn around the facial features, but still very sharp despite challenges of this time.