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July 29, 2007 |
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At the Table
FOUND by Risto Aronen
in Tampere, Finland
I found this torn half of a photo near to the rubbish bin just outside of a grocery shop, stuck on a fence boarding. It was so firmly placed there that I couldn't remove it without ripping the corner of the photo off. The backside of the scrap says "photo taken 1967" in Finnish.
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Palm Man July 09, 2005 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
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It's Mr. Bennet and Claire, Heroes, circa 1967
I was thinking the same exact thing!!!
Also Finnish.
Oh, the good 'ole days! No smiling, no touching, no props, no mom... Wait a minute! By 1967 people were allowed to smile in photos. In 1967 a father could hold his grown daughters hand and it not seem odd. The 60's were a great time to decorate. (Doesn't she at least have a new something to hold for the pic?) Of course, someone is peeved at mom and has "removed" her from the family. Cute.
There's a ton of history behind this sad photograph.
Time for a happy find!
Oh my...this is a captured moment isn't it?
Mom just told Dad that Heidi here isn't really her daughter....or that Heidi is pregant...or flunked out of prep-school...or wrecked the car....SOMETHING big was JUST said & someone - Mom or JackAss Brother just took a photo the second Dad heard the news.
I LOVE this find. Brilliant.
Oh no! Dad says there's a pill that will help Mom be happy and fulfilled all the time...something about Steppford.
Run Mom! Run!
Don't laugh at him and take his picture!
Are you crazy?!
Dear Kevin Schmevin, plase sleep! It's not healthy to go without!
Ok, so I'll be the first this fine Sunday morning. This picture is creepy. That or dad really needs to lay off the coffee. Or speed... whichever.
isn't it obvious?
they're at a dinner party and absolutely starving!
WHERE ARE THOSE APPETIZERS?!
Interesting tangent, the way the windows in the building behind his head give him antenna. Ha! Very bug like, or perhaps he is a relative of 'My Favorite Martian' ...great show that was!
Why do y'all keep saying the mother is ripped out? There's obviously another suited man sitting beside him. Maybe they're one of those hip, modern couples with two guys and a girl. :P
Gee, I hope the Dad isn't always like this.
The photo gives me the impression of the self timer photograph gone bad....only Dad's not amused.
No offense, but the Finnish are famous for not smiling, are they not? And I think I remember that they had to train the Norwegians to smile before the Olympics they hosted. Although I detect a slight smile on the dad.
Maybe it is stranger to smile for no reason at people you don't know when you feel like crap, like us USA-ans.
I think it is a map on the table before them. Maybe the daughter is planning a trip.
They are both good-looking! Good bone structure!
dad looks as if he just downed a 6 pack of jolt
I can't tell if those are specks on the photo or cake crumbs on the table. My guess is that the dad and daughter (and the unnamed person in the suit next to dad, an older brother, perhaps?) have just polished off Mom's entire birthday cake. Mom is punishing them by taking a picture of them with the empty cake doily thing, a picture that the older brother will eventual rip apart and discard, thus destroying most of the evidence of his involvement in the whole incident. The daughter will pinpoint this moment as the exact start of her eating disorder. Mom and Dad will divorce over the strain and the daughter will move to America and become a potter.
Or maybe they were looking at a map and Mom just had lousy picture taking timing.
if it was so firmly attached to the fence you had to rip it to take it off don't you think it was there for a reason? Not a reason you might be able to find out but someone went through the trouble of sticking it there. I hate seeing so-called "finds" that are actively removed from where they were. The page ripped from the guest book. The signs taken off bulletin boards. Why can't y'all tell when stuff's "found" and when stuff's "taken?" Selfish.
I feel like they are inviting me to join a religious cult or sect of some kind, like they just laid out their beliefs and have a contract for me to sign on the table and are now waiting expectantly for my answer...
der de der
So Arnold Schwarzenegger and Henry Rollins had a baby. Not surprisingly, the child turned out to be a dangerous and violent psychopath with spectacularly bulging eyes. When a chance encounter (i.e., scone-eating contest) brought this wackadoo together with Carrie and her dirty pillows, the four of them immediately hit it off, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Is this not the perfect pictorial of the saying "Most men live lives of quiet desperation" ? Then to already see that it is going to be generational....How sad.
I can't look away from the dad's eyes. I think he's trying to burn a hole in my brain.
quit in ma, I totally agree with you. What is it lately with all the "steals?"
It looks like there are crumbs on the table and th napkin is covering up whatever was left. I think they were trying to be sneaky but they just got busted. Dad's got that "Uh uh...wasn't me" look on his face, and the the girl i'm assuming is his daughter looks like "Great. <sigh> Dad's gonna blame it on me I just know it". I mean, that's what my dad would have done.
I think it's funny when puppy and studio photos get the 'creepy " response , but I immediately thought something about this was creepy . I don't even want to think of a back story for it .
He looks like the telling the camera to F off. Maybe that's not his daughter..
Quit it, perhaps the author meant it was stuck to the fence like it had been wet at one time? Old photos have that sticky thing going on when they get wet. It was near a "rubbish bin" so perhaps it was meant to be thrown away but fell off the top?
Taking a page from a guestbook = stealing
photograph stuck to a fence due to rain = not stealing
What's that old story about the traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter?
I love that this photo was dated on the back. This girl would be about 55 now.
Thanks, Risto.
I think somebody probably brought this photo to incest recovery and the therapist encouraged the person to rip it up and throw that image of the bad father in the garbage and to imagine instead a happy childhood with a nice protecting mother and father. Like starting over. Or perhaps I'm overstating the case. Again.
This looks like a very somber and serious family. The dad is stern and straightfaced. I would not get along with him. Finnish or not.
The torn-off person is obviously very small, perhaps a little boy in his best suit? Maybe the piece of paper on the table is the title deeds to their lovely new Finnish home – he is thinking ‘Can I really afford this?’ and Heidi is thinking ‘Are we going to like it here?’ I like the way her nervously clenched hands echo his. Perhaps the photographer is someone they don’t know very well or don’t trust (real-estate agent that sold them the house??). On the other hand, if you look carefully you can see that they ARE smiling. That’d be a restrained Nordic smile, not a goofy have-a-nice-day American one – gotta conserve energy in a cold climate.
The suited individual next to the fixated man appears to be sitting on the floor...
Almost as intimidating as the rake lady.
Run away! Run away from this homocidally stone-faced young woman and her oversized psychotic ventrilloquist dummy.
C.E.S.: I have never heard of a man wearing a sparkly pin reminiscent of a flower.
I thought perhaps a jacket pocket with school pens in it. But looking closely I see the sleeve fabric is kind of ruched around the cuff, so maybe a lady after all. Very small mother? Or sitting/kneeling on the floor? Granny?
Incidentally have you noticed that Pop is wearing a shirt and tie AND a v-neck pullover (or waistcoat) and a jacket? So they can't afford to switch the central heating on yet. And Heidi isn't pregnant – she's just wearing several layers of woolly combinations under that floral frock. Her arms must be chilly though. And the houseplant behind them is looking a bit under the weather too.
At first glance, I thought he was wearing those fake glasses, you know, the ones with the cardboard inserts with eyes drawn on them and a little hole punched throught the cardboard to see through? You know what I mean?
Startled, I can totally see that.
I've lived in Finland before, and it seems to me that these people are perfectly cheerful. I'm not trying to be funny. They are smiling tiny Finnish smiles inside.
No one's smiling, but the man's body language is somewhat relaxed. The girl perhaps looks as if she'd rather her photo not be taken, but it's not a particularly eerie or tragic photo. It simply seems that perhaps there was more pressing business at hand than a snapshot, and the subjects were a little irritated.
what is sticking out of Dad's head? does anyone else see the spike driven into his hairline? Not the antennae from the neighbor's window. How unfortunate, of course they're not smiling.
I think that's Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter doing a screen test for Don Siegel.
But I love lolarusa's comment that they're smiling tiny Finnish smiles inside. I've known a few people like that, and once you get it, it can be very hard to keep a straight face while looking at them.
Anyone see Psycho Beach Party?
Cause he looks like the exchange student from that movie...
Hey it's Mr. Slugworth...I'll never give up the Everlasting Gobstopper.