Juxtapositions

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Pictured, a mounted photo I dug out of the filing cabinet of curiosities that lurks in our spare room upstairs, which fell out of office use years ago, when I joined BT as a humble engineer. Since that time it has been home to our extensive collection of OS maps [bottom drawer], numerous & sundry newspaper savings, old family photos &etc. I can't claim this particular image to be in any way connected to myself or indeed anyone I'm either related to or who I've ever known [this latter would be extremely problematic anyway, given that the image was taken around the time my grandparents were born]. I would guess this was bought in a charity shop some time ago. It is a genuine Hulton Picture Library/Radio Times print, obviously borrowed some sixty or seventy years ago and never returned to the library by the borrower. It is mounted but unframed, yet has the backboard and hanger intact. The picture is of Fraülein Kätchen Paulus, by a photographer simply listed as Guttmann, and titled by the library as "German Panache".

The foxed and aged typewritten label, however, is of course of my own making, as I want to use this as an ornamental picture: I figured that the information regarding the image that is on the reverse of its mount-board should appear up front when I reframe the thing. It seems more appropriate, if a tad duplicitous, to match the label to the aged and foxed mount, for aesthetic reasons. The ageing technique I used was one I learned as a boy from some Boys' Own Annual or some such - if you are under sixty years old you may not get the reference, so Google the phrase - the like of which were an endless source of interesting and useful hints and tips on how to do 'stuff'. Anyhow, I leave it to you to work out how you age a piece of paper to this extent in around five minutes. I just love the idea that one can evince and enhance the hidden narrative of an object by such a juxtaposition. The label obviously will be glued flat non-destructively [with a Pritt Stick] before framing. Catch you later...

Comments

  1. Anonymous5 July 2024 at 08:29

    She's operating a suicide ballon then?
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

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