Figure 1.--.

An interesting aspect of old family portraits is who is responsible for the pose, the parents or the photograper. This is of interest as the pose suggests family relationships, a topic of some interest to HBC. Here there are two considerations. First is the basic pose. Some HBC readers believe that this was primarily determined by the photographer. A HBC reader with an extensive collection of old photographs tells us, "As for the actual pose, I don't think the parents would have had that much control over that, though they would have told the photographer or chosen from a sample album, the sort of picture they wanted. In which case, it shows either a lack of imagination on the part of the parents for choosing this pose, or a lack of imagination on the part of the photographer for not having more compelling and attractive poses to offer." HBC is sure that mothers played at least a minor role in the posing. There are, for example, too many ringlet cufrls carefully arrayed on a boy's shoulder so that they would be displayed for best effect for this to have been pure accident. (This is much less common for a girl's ringlets for some unknown reason.) Two is interactions between the family members once the children are placed in the basic pose. In some portraits the children are touching or holding hands displaying rather tender relationships. In many other portraits the children stand stiffly, someties even with their hands held behinf their backs. Some HBC readers believe that this probably reflects instructiins from the photogfapher. We are unsure to ehat extent parents might be involved or to the extent that this shows formal relationships within the family.

The Basic Pose

Some HBC readers believe that the basic pose was primarily determined by the photographer. A HBC reader with an extensive collection of old photographs tells us, "As for the actual pose, I don't think the parents would have had that much control over that, though they would have told the photographer or chosen from a sample album, the sort of picture they wanted. In which case, it shows either a lack of imagination on the part of the parents for choosing this pose, or a lack of imagination on the part of the photographer for not having more compelling and attractive poses to offer." HBC is sure that mothers played at least a minor role in the posing. There are, for example, too many ringlet cufrls carefully arrayed on a boy's shoulder so that they would be displayed for best effect for this to have been pure accident. (This is much less common for a girl's ringlets for some unknown reason.)

Interactions

A nother element of the pose is little interactions between the family members once the children are placed in the basic pose. In some portraits the children are touching or holding hands displaying rather tender relationships. A good example here is a German 1870s portrait. In many other portraits the children stand stiffly, someties even with their hands held behinf their backs. A example here is a German 1900s portrait. Some HBC readers believe that this probably reflects instructions from the photographer. We are unsure to ehat extent parents might be involved or to the extent that this shows formal relationships within the family. Here a HBC reader writes, "It seems to me that the rather 'cold' portrait is the norm rather than the exception in old photographs. Amongst my collection of thousands of CDVs and Cabinet cards from around the world, the number that reveal any true sign of affection/love between siblings can be counted on the fingers of one hand--who says the camera cannot lie?" HBC is unsure to what extent the absence of interaction is due to actual feelings on the part of the children or even whether the photographer or parents were involved. A HBC reader writes, "I expect the children in many of these portarits are slightly nervous about having their photo taken, in which case some 'blame' must attach to the phographer for not relaxing his subjects. Equally, you may be correct and they may be under the gaze of a strict father whose wrath they might feel if things went awry." Another factor to consider is social conventions. Today we see images of children touching and holding each other as charming reflections of tenderness and affection. We are not sure that this is how 19th century parents viewed this. Certainly some did. Many others may have wanted a more formal pose. These are all questions that are important to interpret these images and which HBC has only begun to address.

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Created: April 29, 2003
Last updated: April 29, 2003