Yes, the photo makes me somewhat sad to realize that these people have lived out their entire lives already. But I guess what it does is make us realize that eventually, a hundred years will pass from now and people will be looking at our photos/home videos and making comments and wondering what our lives were like. Life goes on and eventually we’ll pass from the world just like these people have done.
And I think one guy on the right of center in the dark-striped shirt next to the light-striped shirt looks like Cliff Clavin from Cheers.
I had a game on my PC called Red Baron. (I suppose it’s still there, but the computer is stored.) You set up your persona before playing, and you get to choose photos of guys in WWI flying gear. The model for the guy I chose for my ID looks exactly like me. There was a shooting magazine back in the '80s that had a picture of a guy on the cover that looked like me. I’ve also noticed my birthday (June the 12th) showing up with some frequency.
One difference between this photo and a modern one, is the conspicuous lack of sunglasses.
If a photo like this were taken today on the beachfront, many of the people would have their eyes obscured, taking away some of the dynamics and liveliness of the photo.
The other neat thing about the photo, is that many of the men (especially Harry Potter holding the girl’s head and his smiling buddy between him and the girl), have expensive-looking asymmetrical haircuts. With a few exceptions, it’s a generally good looking bunch.
All of the people in the picture would still be dead, had the picture never been taken. Like untold millions of people who have lived and died without their lives being recorded. A small part of the essence of these people is still alive, as long as the picture remains.
I think my favorite face in this photo is the calm looking guy with the monogrammed tank top to the left of the smilers.
He looks so peaceful and normal, like he could be some easy going guy who always laughs at your lame jokes across the table at lunch time.
And I agree that the dude behind him with crossed arms does look like he might be an ancestor of much of white male New Jersey.
Note that both of the smilers are holding on to the girl. The one behind is holding her arms back (so she can’t hide her face) while the front man is pointing her head at the camera.
Go ahead and poke around that site. The ones that blow me away consistently are the ones from 4x5 Kodachromes.
Check out this Rosie the Riveter in action at some kind of mill. The skin tones are perfect and you see the sweat on her forehead. Definitely not the kind of WWII photo I am used to.
And it feels like you could walk up and tap one of these folks on the shoulder and ask them if it’s break time yet.
I’m drawn to the woman on the left of the photo. (the op photo)
She is staring at the camera but she is blurry. Her pose seems like she should be in focus but she isn’t for some reason.
I think it is because at the moment of the photograph the man behind her had decided to murder her.
I wonder how many of the young boys ended up fighting in the Great War?
“Wow… whoever would have thought that this Star Wars Kid guy would grow up to rule everything from the Northwest Territories to Tierra Del Fuego, and how could they not have known that Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream video would encourage the United Citizenry of the Jovian Satellites to reveal themselves to the citizens of Earth… and how is it possible that Russian guy with that weirdass ‘la la la la la la’ song is still alive at 170?”
It looks like Harry Potter has a sweater tied around his shoulders.
Scut Farkus in the front in mid action, I wonder what he’s doing and what he has in his hand.
The story is: Harry Potter and his brother hear a photographer is taking a picture and they want to be in it. That girl is their sister and she refuses to be in the photo because, well her hairs a mess! They playfully drag her over holding her face up laughing the whole time. They’re a fun family.
I want the picture to unfreeze and see if I’m right and see if creepy guy on the left does indeed murder blurry girl.
Join the club, MissSwitac.
I have this odd fascination with old photos like this - I want to know what happened to every single person in the photo, and about that moment in time.
And the thought that even the youngest in this photo is most likely long since dead makes this photo even more captivating.
Who was Gay? Who died tragically at an early age? Who went off to war? Who became successful or famous? Who was arrested for murder or some other crime?
It is a given that none of them, in their wildest dreams, could ever envision having their photo be viewed in the year 2010 by people logging into a computer - worldwide.
They were just a bunch of people having fun on the beach - but for me, a glimpse from the past that somehow puts everything into perspective - how fleeting moments are and how much we should appreciate these simple joys - who knows who will be looking at us in 100 years or more and wondering the same.
BTW, I hope you all scroll from left to right on the photo link - this is really quite a large photo and you don’t want to miss the people to the right as well!
I’m with you, DMark,
I want to notify all of these people’s descendants of this photo. You just know that the people in this photo have living relatives who would love this photo, but don’t know it exists. I’d like to hear all of their stories. What brought them together on this day? How many of them knew each other? What did they do with their lives? It’s neat to think about.
Can anybody tell if any of the people from that photo are in this one? (Same site, also Atlantic City 1905, but I don’t know if it’s same day/same group.)