Reliving the Past

Seventy some years ago my great uncle Bob who by all estimations was quite an eccentric man took a series of photographs of my great grandfather and a friend.  They were posed studio photographs and taken long before digital photography was ever conceived of.  I love these photographs for several reasons but foremost is the window into the playful side of my great grandfather's personality.  I have no idea why they chose monks but for a strange reason they always seemed perfect.  Another portrait from the same session was taken in a fisherman's weather hat and titled Cap'n Hart. It has yet to be recreated. 

As the years pass memories fade.  Eventually one generation transcends the next and living memory ceases to exist.  The only thing that remains are the images of people who once walked our world yet long ago departed.  I love to look at these old photographs and wonder about the people.  Who were they?  What made them laugh and what made them cry?  Did they ever fall in love?  Were they kind or were they mean.  The one thing for sure is they were not so different then ourselves.  We may live in different houses and drive different cars yet at the root of it all, deep inside people are people and our hopes and fears transcend centuries. 

Recently my father was visiting and asked if we could stage a similar shot in my wife's studio.   He confessed no relation to those pictured yet said that he always felt he knew them.  Perhaps this was the result of my mother's stories, fragments of her own memories.  So here they are, some 70+ years later we have staged a recreation of portraits that have survived long beyond those that took them.  I only wish that in some way my mother, Great Uncle Bob, Great Grandfather Hart or the unnamed friend could see them.  If their spirits still exist out there, I hope at the least, they have a good laugh.