About Forgotten Faces / Rob Jennings  

Forgotten Faces

I have been collecting old postcards of the Isle of Wight for many years and it was quite by chance that during a search on ebay I discovered a real photographic card depicting a large group of family and friends on Ventnor beach. Taken around the 1920`s or early 1930`s by a local photographer who probably roamed the beach in search of business I was facinated by this image from the past.



Who were these people and how did they live their lives ? Did they all live nearby or were they on holiday ?
The truth is we will never really find out as they were just ordinary people who thought it would be nice to have their photographs taken, a spur of the moment thing that has survived to this day.

Having discovered this one postcard it occurred to me that there were probably many more postcards of people from the past out there and this was confirmed after a brief search on the internet.
There are in fact many thousands of this type of postcard available to collectors but there are few who actually collect them. Most collectors prefer other subjects such as view cards and so the vast majority of these forgotten faces stay in the dealers boxes seemingly destined to remain hidden away for ever.

With this in mind I decided to start collecting a number of these cards but not to shut away in an album where only I could see them but to share with those who are interested.

Although pictorial postcards emerged in the 1890`s it was not until the very early 1900`s that this format was used by the proffesional photographer for capturing his subjects on film. The postcard was cheaper to produce than other types as it had no mount. For just a few old pennies you could buy a dozen or so photographs. This opened up the family photograph to much of the population at the time and people flocked to photograhers studios to have their picture taken. Those who could afford it would have the photographer visit them at home.
This postcard format was popular until the 1950`s when home photography began to emerge.

Photographers and families both accepted that the purpose of the photograph was to portray them as they would ideally wish to be seen rather than how they were in real life. This is why we sometimes see lavish backdrops and sitters dressed in their Sunday best. The intention was to suggest a lavish and elegant lifestyle when perhaps in reality this could not be further from the truth.



Not all photographs were taken in studios and were not all just family portraits. Every event and occasion in peoples lives was put on film.
I have created different " Sets " to reflect this and they range from - Family Groups, Single Male Portraits, Single Female Portraits to Occasions, Sport, Schools and Outings.
I have also created a " Special Set ". This will include cards which have a special interest. Sometimes you will get a group of cards showing the same person over the years or a card of important social history and these will be included in this set.

I have included a description of each card where applicable. This will include any information on the reverse such as names, photographers studio and any mention of date. There are some cards however that have no information and in these cases there will be no description.
I have tried to give a rough estimation of dates but as this is not one of my strong points at the moment I would welcome any suggestions on the the possible dates of these cards.

Due to their age some of these postcards are not in the best of condition.
In fact the ones that are printed on real photographic card have a tendency
to fade badly. Others are grubby and creased.
I have carried out a bit of tidying up on some of the really badly affected cards and have restored some natural colour to the really faded ones.

I hope you enjoy looking through these forgotten faces and you never know - you might just recognise someone from your family and in which case I would love to hear from you.

I have recently started a blog linked to this site which I hope to develop over the coming months so please drop by and have a read now and again.

rob-forgottenfaces.blogspot.com



I have just started a Flickr site with my own photos so if you are interested then please drop by. Not much there at the moment but will be soon..

www.flickr.com/photos/rob_jennings/

Also another Flickr site with my Isle of Wight photographs

www.flickr.com/photos/wight_vision/



Rob


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.