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| Note to Self
December 8, 2004
Hardware Forensics
I love old images. All too frequently, I can be found at one of the many Brooklyn and Manhattan flea markets sifting through boxes of discarded family photographs. The process is bittersweet and I seldom buy anything. They draw me in and inevitably make me sad.
Most of the time these photographs come from estates or emptied apartments. They are the lost legacy of someone who has passed away, their lineage, at least as illustrated by images, gone. Part of me, I think, secretly hopes to find a long last family snapshot-- perhaps of a grandparent or great uncle, a bit of serendipity mixed into the lost memories of other families. To my knowledge, that has not happened yet.
At the PS 321 flea market on Sunday, I discovered something different. In an old suitcase sat the photographic evidence of one man’s life. From the images, I could discern that he was an amateur photographer. He liked the family cat. He and his wife traveled often. They had children. Most interestingly, however, was that he was some sort of mechanical engineer.
Mixed throughout family snapshots, landscapes and portraits (and later, we discovered, three binders), were photographs of broken machinery parts. Many were coupled with shots of accident scenes, annotated with descriptions of the mechanical failure and injuries sustained. The broken bolts and pipes were fascinating—like archaeological documentation of urban fossils. I couldn’t help myself and snatched up several prints.
I have sifted through the images several times since purchasing them. A small piece of me feels this odd guilt about framing and hanging them on my wall. They are not just discarded photographs from an engineering company; hand printed and interwoven with pictures of family and friends, they are artifacts from a person’s life. It is so strange to buy them on a street corner, bereft of their owner. In essence, I am acquiring a piece of someone else’s past.
Again, bittersweet.
Posted by callalillie at December 8, 2004 8:28 AM | City Life
, Introspect
wow.that's fantastic -- sounds like the man of the invention era. was the person selling them the man who took the photos? that would be very peculiar -- to see which photos of your life people are interested in.
Posted by: yp at December 8, 2004 9:04 AM
oh no, the man had died. at least, that is what i discerned from the vendor who said "he was an engineer."
i should have paid attention more to the name of the company that he worked for. at times it was brooklyn polytechnic and others it was a place in manhattan. i'll have to go back this weekend and fin d out.
Posted by: corie at December 8, 2004 9:11 AM
Posted by: Alexis at December 8, 2004 9:42 AM
it's kind of sad that in 50 years people won't find old photos in boxes from our decade because so many will be in hard drives that crashed or lost in the neverworld of websites people used to keep... which reminds me ... time to back up the photo files onto CD's...
Posted by: yp at December 8, 2004 4:16 PM
totally why i've started getting mine printed, even if it's just via ofoto...
Posted by: corie at December 8, 2004 4:30 PM
Glad to see someone cares about this material that no one else notices. You go into these flea markets, or just walk around older parts of town and look at things. Chances are you'll see things that were one very important parts of someone's lives. Because they're out of the way, or small and seemingly insignificant, they'll be left where they are for years.
For example, you walk down Broadway and if you look up at Waverly Place you'll see a large sign that says Treffurth's. It used to be a restaurant. It closed decades ago; probably everyone who ate or worked there is gone, or very, very old. Only the sign is still there.
I love that.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Posted by: Kevin Walsh at December 8, 2004 4:31 PM
i do the same thing. there was an abandoned house in my neighborhood, so me and my friend decided to investigate and for 2½ hours, we sat in the attic looking through old family photos of families that weren't our own. it's haunting in a way..
Posted by: christine at December 8, 2004 4:59 PM
did you hear about the film called "other people's pictures?" It just opened at the Pioneer Theater yesterday and is a documentary about people who collect snapshots at the chelsea flea market.
Posted by: yp at December 9, 2004 3:39 PM
I did hear about that-- I really want to see it next week!
Posted by: corie at December 10, 2004 7:20 PM
