Bill Hall & Jim Pollen. Tiajuana Jail RPPC. Private Collection.
World War II era sailors Bill and Jim and three bottles of liquor…what could go wrong? They don’t look too inebriated on this arcade picture taken in Tijuana, Mexico. Looks to me this was a “Before” picture they named “After”, as if we’re fooled. :)
Pretty boy Bill looks like he hit something hard with his right hand.
Detail close-up.
RPPC: EKC 1939-1950
Man with eye injury and his friend. Tintype. Private Collection.
This unfortunate gent with the injured eye had to wear a bandage wrapped around the head for his portrait picture. He looks so down. Was he in pain and worried he’d lost an eye for good? Let’s hope he fully recovered, otherwise he was going to have to get used to it and looking at his expression he wasn’t in the least thrilled.
His friend is wearing a lucky horseshoe tie stack…I wonder if he was with the other man when the accident happened. They have boutonnieres too, one has it on the coat lapel and the other on the cravat. But if they attended an event that day, this poor lad doesn’t look like he was in the best mood to be social.
Today is not my day…pout.
Also, the backdrop design looks Arabic with a tall waterfall in the background. The right panel looks like a completely separate design, the painted window looking more American with the bottom panel supposed to slide up.
1″ x 2.5″ photo strip. Private Collection.
Those tiny photo strips feel so fragile in hand. One wonders how they survived a hundred years without being destroyed. I love these two. Obviously they were quite close. Yet we don’t know their names or a shred of their lives.
A particularly flashy smile on a tintype. Private Collection.
These two dapper gents in their 30s are posing in front of a cloudy and hilly backdrop all smile! The people with them must have said something really funny for them to look this entertained! This tintype seems late period, maybe around 1910. Their popularity dropped in the first decade of the 1900s, but they were still fairly common with travelling photographers until the 20s.
The glare is from a small bend in the middle reflecting the scanner light. Unfortunately many tintypes have such bends through decades of handling.
1/6th plate tintype. Private Collection.
Were they? The more mature gentleman has on his right hand (reversed) a round stone ring on display, and his striped pair of pants! They remind me of circus ringmasters. The photographer added gold tones to the younger gent’s triple chain.
They’re both resting their elbows on the small table between them; a pose at professional distance, and they do not look related to me. Business partners or student and mentor? We will never know for sure, but they looked respectable.
Bowlers And High Collars 