A 1918 photograph goes viral in a big way. The story is interesting—even if the truth behind the picture might be a little disillusioning. But then, we all know that things are not always what they seem in photographs, right?
Interestingly, I'm not aware of ever seeing this image before Jay Townshend sent me this video a few days ago. (Thanks to Jay.)
Another link people have been sending me: "You're Pointing Your Camera the Wrong Way," by Margaret Renkl. A quotation: "My son and daughter-in-law, who are frequent campers, have seen people queued up at least 50 deep to take phone selfies at popular national park waterfalls and rock formations."
Mike
Flickr page / New Yorker author page
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Featured Comments from:
Jon Peterson: "We had it in our home. As a young lad just getting interested in photography (1970s), I used to joke with my mom that I wanted to steal the frame and put my own photo in it. Decades later, that same water-stained print in the same cheap, chipped frame hangs on my wall. Makes me think of my mom."
Never seen ‘The Prayer,’ but interesting, even though it’s clear that book doesn’t look like any bible I’ve seen.
The NYT piece seems too black and white to me. Who’s to judge that people taking selfies don’t also truly enjoy the surroundings? To me, there’s something pretentious about the other side as well, those people soaking it all up without a camera as if that’s somehow superior. It’s not. It’s just different.
Posted by: John | Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 03:28 PM
🤷♂️ Not having ever lived in a remotely religious environment I’ve never seen it before now.
But there are many once-ubiquitous photographs that might be interesting to reveal!
Posted by: Kenneth Tanaka | Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 03:59 PM
Glad to see you say you were unaware of seeing this "famous" image, Mike. Me neither, although probably fairly immune, growing up in New Zealand. I reckon it's simply clickbait for the long advertisement promoting the web building company at the end. Cynical?
Posted by: Bruce | Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 04:31 PM
On a completely unrelated note, if you don't want to see the blatant ad at the end of the video, you can either stop there around 6:15 or simply read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_(photograph) which contains most of the relevant information.
Posted by: NikoJorj | Wednesday, 25 January 2023 at 03:52 AM
Yep, it was in many homes in my middle-of-nowhere Northern California hometown. Slightly guilt-inducing, but that didn't stop many of the kids who lived in those homes from being hard partiers. Maybe they subconsciously knew that the subject was a role model for them, after all.
Posted by: Dan Montgomery | Wednesday, 25 January 2023 at 08:55 AM
A print of that photo hung in my great grandmother's house (mom's side) and also in my grandparent's house (father's side.)
I am pretty sure I saw it in other people's houses, too, while growing up in West Virginia.
It was indeed a thing, in certain circles.
Posted by: T. Edwards | Wednesday, 25 January 2023 at 02:34 PM