Hattie and Kitten

I spent a good deal of my time back east scanning old family photos which will appear here in due time. This picture of Hattie with kitten is my favorite so far. Hattie was born in 1916, so that gives you some idea of the age of the photo. Most of the photos in the family collection of this vintage are either formal studio portraits or families posed in front of their new barns and such (we'll get to those later), so these are really the first candids, the first photos taken by a family member or friend experimenting with a new toy and not by a professional. Judging by the format (and rate of deterioration) the murky photo of Grandma and Grandpa TerMaat was taken at the same time. Very Walker Evans, no?

This little exercise in photographic excavation is reminding me of a novel I read recently (twice, in fact), W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz. The book concerns a man trying to unearth the fragments of an identity lost when he became a part of the Kindertransport, often using fuzzy images which are reproduced in the book. Not a book for everyone (Sebald's one of those European writers who disdains paragraphs), but for you more literary types, I recommend it.