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October 25, 2007 |
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Four Brothers?
FOUND by Markus Hartel
in New York City, New York
This is a cheap machine/lab print of a vintage photo. My best guess is that the owner wanted to share this ancient picture with somebody, photographed it, and took the film for printing to the one-hour lab. I found this in Washington Heights close to- you guessed it- a one-hour lab.
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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...
I love old pics like this, and I really hope that someone in the pic, or someone who knows any or all of these four young men will see this and weigh in at the "hey that's me!" link. I won't even hazard a guess at the time frame this might have been taken.
The Found Event in Oly was fun.. not exactly what I expected.. it was even Better! What a cool bunch of people! "Rock On!!"
I'm going to guess the 1940s.
Ladies and Gentleman: Future Senator Barrack Obama, alongside, his entourage.
Good one Sean! I thought maybe it's the Jackson 5 before Michael was born!
Did you know you can have old photos repaired and digitally enhanced now without doing any damage to the original print? My family had some old photos done and the results were remarkable!
These boys are beautiful. This one was certainly lost and not discarded.
Chrome, I hope someone recognizes them, too. (And I can't wait to hear more about the Found event you went to last night!)
What beautiful little boys - so full of promise, hope and life.
I hope they did well in life.
Yes, Nightingale, the boys are beautiful. I hope the person getting the copy made didn't think that just making a copy of it would take out the marks - and then discarded it in disgust when it didn't.
Lester, Earl, Ernest and little James Johnson were the apple of their mama's eye. Lester, being the oldest, always felt a sense of responsibility for his younger brothers. Earl, the serious one, was alway good at school and made highest marks. Ernest had a beaming smile that would light up any room; he always had a funny story to share with anyone who would listen. And little James seemed to go through the world as if he believed it were a gift made just for him - and with three brothers that loved and protected him like life itself, he may have been right.
The Jackson Five--the early years--really early years--or maybe TiTo is taking the picture!
Looks like whoever the photo was shared with didn't care for it, which is sad. Or that the sharer dropped the print without noticing, which spoiled the surprise; even sadder.
I remember when my mother dressed us all in matching outfits; mothers thought it was cute, other kids laughed at us. And if, like me, you were last in line, you were wearing the same stupid clothes for YEARS as you grew into the scaled handmedowns, and got teased about the "outfits that grew with you."
Please, please, dress your kids as individuals, not matched sets!
This is a very cute picture. I'd love to see a copy of it that has been corrected. My guess is that the wife of one of these boys took this picture for correcting and was going to frame it for her favorite mother-in-law.
To Basil:
As the youngest child of six children, I COMPLETELY agree! I never really minded hand me down clothes, but my mom was good about letting us dress as individuals. I now have twin girls, and while I will admit that as very young babies I dressed them alike, mostly out of self preservation (it really is easier) and partly because we had SO many sets of outfits that they received as gifts. I very rarely dress them alike now although surprisingly, they often choose coordinating outfits every day. But, you would be surprised at how often people will CHASTISE me for dressing them differently!!?! It drives me crazy.
Sweet picture, but at the end of the day the comments will be lame. I mean how much more can be said. It makes me think (and yall are thinking it too) of the civil rights movement and church bombs. Checking out til tormmorow, or mabye I'll just go back a couple days and see what's up. Maybe mom will open up a can of wup ass on Sean S. again.
As soon as I saw the picture I thought. "It looks like four little Dominican boys" Of course as soon as I read that it was found in Washington Heights I know that I'm right.
well they look like they're uncomfortable to me.
maybe this pic was discarded when old memories resurfaced that didn't need to resurface.
The two boys in front look like conjoined twins. I'd like to see them tackle playing a tuba.
I am a little leery knowing that our finder specializes in photography and graphic design. Nice street photos, BTW.
I am thinking that there was one copy of the deteriorating picture, but there were multiple people who wanted it, perhaps it was someone's father as a child and all of his children wanted a copy, so they made copies so everyone would at least have something. I am a from a huge family, and we have a lot of old old pictures that we have fought over and had to do just that. I hope whoever has the original takes it to a shop to get the photo fixed. It's beautiful and worth the money for the repairs.
Looks like a photo their father kept in his wallet, which would explain the deep creases...you know from years of being folded and unfolded and sat on. Perhaps recently one of them found it in their dad's old worn wallet and wanted to share it with his brothers.
Why the question mark in the title? Those are unmistakably brothers.
as the youngest of 7, and the mother of twins, i know from handmedowns. My sister and i (who are 2 yrs apart) were often dressed alike. I used to hate it when people asked if we were twins. I only dressed my girls alike, when they were very small, just cuz they were so darn cute. Once they became toddlers, they could wear what they liked, but they did share a wardrobe. I know a mother of twins, who goes even farther than that, and has a separate wardrobe for her toddler twins. Frankly, i think she has too much time on her hands. I don't have the memory capacity to figure out which clothes belong to whom.
anyway. These boys are cute. I wonder who they are, where they are. If they hated dressing alike. Freon, that's beautiful. I love your analysis. It looks like a well loved photo.
Freon, that was a wonderful post. (little ol' tear in the corner of my eye... sniff*)
These are totally clones.
Freon, what a wonderful observation.
I love it when pictures are cracked... I don't know why.
Awww, this picture is so cute. It reminds me of a happy, simpler time in America. Mom and Dad working hard, long hours to keep food on the table, but always such good parents, strong and proud. Making sure their boys stayed in line and dressed their best. They obviously passed that pride onto their children, you can see it on their faces.
Thanks, every one. :o) Little background stories just pop into my mind when I look at old photographs. Alai, I understand your love of cracked photos: this means they've been handled - a lot, and for a long time. They are photos that touched someone and had real meaning. They are special.
back when city dwellers lived off the land, one table cloth was enough to clothe a whole family for a month.
Back in the days when you could reach over your shoulder to grab your wallet. Now, you have to reach for your thigh.
Turbo, those people must have been double-jointed with really long arms back in the day!
the small number of large folds in this make it look intentionally crumpled and discarded, not over-handled or accidentally lost.
I see this as a symbol of a great family strife. One of the brothers (the one with the mischeivous smile maybe) made a cheap digital copy of the photo and gave it to another brother (frowny face in the back?) as an appology for current hard times. Frowny rejected this appology, crumpled it, got out of his brother's car right there and dropping it walked away forever.
If smiley had given frowny the original, it woulda gone different, which proves that modern convienience and the easy discardability of simulacra translates to the easy discardability of family and human connections.
It's a lonely world we live in when all we have are digital reproductions of mechanical reproductions of our lives.
contact me at rexwinsome.net if you'd like me to paint an authentic one-of-a-kind portrait of your family in oils or acrylics for the low low price of $550. They've got aura.
I love older picture, looking at them and wondering who they were and what they were like and what they are thinking when the picture was taken! Nice find!
aw man.. i love it
Wow, 31 comments, I hate to say it, but I guess Pepper was right. Not much to comment about. That's too bad.
Pssst: Shelly.. *mainly because the comments are pretty much all about the find, not about Pepper.*
the one kid in the back left didn't get the plaid/striped shirt memo.
Where did everybody go? Maybe alot of our posters are from burning California. Rob in LA, you okay?
BECKY: The kid in the back with the different shirt is the eldest; they always get first crack at the new clothes; the rest of us learn recycling early. I still feel guilty everytime I buy a new garment!
markus has a most wonderful website. worth a visit.
This is actually pretty good quality for a copy of a copy. The faces are all still so detailed!
I love this pic. But the best thing was discovering Markus Hartel's photography. You gotta take your time. Look at the details. Amazing and ironic.
I teach stringed instruments to four "identical" brothers (#5 starts next year). Their mom dresses them a lot like this, close-cropped hair, button down plaid shirts, Wranglers and cowboy boots, since they live out on a ranch. But their similarities are only skin deep, and they want so badly to make their marks as individuals. Maybe that's why the oldest switched to viola this year. I hope the little boys in this pic were as awesome as my students.
Looks like someone replaced Juanita's birth control pills with jelly beans again.
they look like my dad and his brothers! i could almost swear it was them!
Kaisharif, did any of your Dad's brothers move to NY? Is your Dad around to share this pic with? It'd be really cool if this WAS your Dad and uncles!! Update us if there's an update.
Funny to go back in time and look at past comments; Sean S mentions SENATOR Barrack Obama, Cotton mentions Jackson 5 before Michael was BORN. How things change. I wonder what the odds were back in October 2007.