Random Excellence: The Glass Plates in the Attic

A friend wrote to say that photographer Bernard Moncet has posted some historical photos found in an attic. The description reads:

All the images presented in this portfolio come from a family photo library whose ancestors lived at different times in Saône-et-Loire and Aveyron between 1891 and 1981. These photos were found in the attic of a family home during a major cleaning. They were all preserved intact on glass plates and were digitized after having re-photographed them. The author of these shots was a cabinetmaker by trade but he had a deep passion for humanist photography and scenes of life in the countryside betxeen 1910 and 1920.

That cabinetmaker was an artist! Well above the standard of most such accidental finds. I enjoyed these.

Bernard is a Fuji shooter who only uses primes, and his own pictures elsewhere on the same site make it clear that he has a feeling for days gone by.

Mike
(Thanks to Jeffrey MacMillan)

Book of Interest:

Photographs Not Taken: a collection of photographers' essays, edited by Will Steacy (Daylight Books; Second Revised ed. edition, 2012). Recommended by Mike Chisholm, who has good taste. This is a link to Amazon from TOP.

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Tanaka: "The found images are interesting time capsules. But Bernard Moncet's work is far more interesting. I've seen his work on The Eye of Photography (L'oeil de la Photographie). I'm especially fond of his 'Rainy Day' scenes. Lovely color, good natural impressionism."

Henry L.: "Images like these are wonderful and haunting. Aside from the skilled posing of subjects and well done exposure, they show an mutual empathy between the photographer and subjects. Just setting up and actually making an image was a slow process whereupon there was friendly banter. One thing I especially enjoy is that my grandmother was a girl (b. 1800s) at this time and I get a glimpse into the world of that era.The subjects are like ghosts from the past showing us their humanity. Cheers from Texas!"

Joe: "Man, I'm with Ken Tanaka—Bernard Moncet's personal work is wonderful. I wish I could browse bigger versions of the images."

Mike replies: Me too, but at the same time I'm sympathetic to people who want to protect their images by only publishing small JPEGs.

Comments

[Bob Feugate]

What a wonderful series of photographs-especially the ones of the cabinetry workshop. The subjects are craftsmen who are clearly proud of their skills. Shorpy-worthy, every one of them!

[darlene]

What I enjoy most when looking at historical family/humanistic photos is when the familiar dog or cat enters the scene and brings me back to reality. Pets never seem to change throughout the centuries.

[Stan B.]

Wow! That's quite the find- the school teacher and seated man with a cane could fit in rather well amongst August Sander's crew! Love having a print of the bicycle duo with the crowd in the background.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

No exact dates on individual photos (which seems consistent with how they reached us), but note that in the 12th shot a man working in a wood shop is wearing a sweater with words on it. Top word is clearly "FRANCAIS", France. Bottom word might be "DUNLOP", which was one of the very early brands of tire. I hadn't thought advertising clothing went back quite that far.

I do like modern scans and prints of old negatives; I like them a lot more than old prints, often, I guess mostly because our materials and tools are so much better.

[Bob Johnston]

Probably the greatest gift that photography has given us is that it is the nearest thing to a time machine. Fascinating pictures. Thank you for finding them.

[Bob Johnston]

David spotted Dunlop on a sweater. The pneumatic tyre was invented by Robert Thomson. However John Dunlop independently invented it in 1888 unaware of Thomson's patent and made the first practical tyres. Both were Scotsmen.

[Thomas Mc Cann]

re David Dyer-Bennet comment

That jumper looks like a home knit. Dunlop is a surname as well as a brand name. Common in Ireland, Maybe his wife/mother/sister knitted it for him. Home knits were common in my young days. As a child I loathed wearing them as I thought them a sign of poverty

[Zyni Moë]

'La Française' was a cycling team which competed between 1901 and 1955. They had sponsors and were 'La Française-Dunlop' in 1928, 1934-1935, 1937, 1944, 1946-1947, 1949. Some other years they were 'La Française-Diamant-Dunlop', (start in 1924) but therefore suspect this jersey must date from no earlier than the 1928 season, though could of course not be new so perhaps any year after that. Is possible (perhaps likely) that there were jerseys made earlier even though that was not team name, as many other photos look earlier.

[Fred Haynes]

Fascinating pictures! I spent some time with them this morning, looking at all of them several times over. In some cases, the people depicted looked quite odd. I would love to know the relationships. Only one picture set me back a bit, and that the one that illustrated your post Mike. The little person, child? Perhaps a dwarf? The dress? Strange! And the look in the eyes, a bit unnerving, perhaps haunted. Am I seeing more then what’s there?
One hopes this person was well treated.
Fred

[Jnny]

Boy-o-boy, those photos just scream for some hand coloring.