Photographing the 1880's, inspiration.

As I have probably said 100 times, I like the 1880's because it's at the very end of one chapter in time and at the same time at the very beginning of the chapter we are still living in. In Swedish the saying for the olden days is literally 'in the 19th century' and the earliest time we can recreate in clothes without looking decidedly dressed up is the late 1800's. And every time we switch on a light we do that same thing that once fascinated the late Victorians. 

Or maybe we have already turned the page and I just haven't noticed yet..

I may not have said quite as many times that I like Victorian photographs because they are so very relateable, the people in them look like people just like us, while at the same time we can almost be certain that they are dead at this point. It's like a modern version of the medieval 'dance of death', they were once just like us and one day we will all join them in whatever follows. It's like a welcoming hand reaching out through the silver coated paper. 

Maybe that's why I like the ones where people smile the most. 

They generally look gravely serious. Contrary to popular belief it wasn't that it took so long to hold a smile, not by the end of the century anymore, although I'm sure that contributed. It was just not considered 'classy' to smile. Imagine if there was one picture of you taken in your lifetime (or death, but I'll get to that another time), you would want that picture to represent you as well as possible I'm sure. Well, most Victorians wanted to be seen as respectable, composed, genuine..and they thought it ridiculous to smile in a picture. It's for the same reason as the less well to do made their best efforts to look better off in that one single picture. Would you spoil your only chance of being remembered?

But I look for the same thing in dead people as I do in the living ones. Humanity. I like the pictures that show the reality or the unshielded..the slightly off but warm and and deep and kind. People where they look just like us or anyone in the street.

I think I lost that throughout the years of trying to create authenticity in my pictures. In this new chapter of my life and my photographs I will take a turn off to the side street and try to find my way back to that.