31 January 2009

Aimless Archeology

Someday, I'll organize my photos, the old ones, the pre-digital ones (not that the digital ones are in much order). Right now, some of them are sort of sorted, but most of them are just randomly tossed in a big plastic storage box.

In some fit of madness this afternoon, I rummaged around in that box. I found a vast, odd range: baby pictures of me, stuff from college, old boyfriends at the beach, the dear departed cats on vacation in Maine, wallet sized school photos of me and my siblings.

My mother always had a good eye. She dabbled in photography, her father was a commercial artist with a dark room in the cellar, and she had a pretty good Leica camera. One day, when I wasn't yet a year old, she tied me to the high chair and took a series of arty black and white photos of me in an antique baby dress. Eventually I got bored; this is the last in the series.

That high chair is still at my mother's house. Her little grandchildren have all used it; Tiny still does from time to time.

But I wonder where the dress is.

27 comments:

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

That is precious.

I use a similar storage system for my photos.

heidi said...

dangerous, once you start to dig....

rachel... said...

I love it! What will you do with the old photo??? Something special, I hope.

Kyla said...

That is lovely.

I need to remember to PRINT more of my photos. The danger of digital photograph (for me) is that too often they aren't turned into anything tangible.

flutter said...

that picture is hilarious, I love it

Kirsetin Morello said...

That photo is adorable. I love it!

Anjali said...

What a treasure!

Melissa said...

I'm curious about the dress, too. My mom was the absolute worst about saving stuff like that and it makes me kind of sad.

alejna said...

I love the photo. The feet!

It's a rather daunting task to organize old photos, but totally engrossing to sort through them.

Mental P Mama said...

That is a beautiful picture;)

Unknown said...

Just gorgeous. It got me thinking about things that Violet will hope I saved. In most of the photos of Vi's first year she's just wearing a cloth diaper. If only I could have put a copy of her naked little self in a box to stay small for always.

...but that would be creepy.

Girlplustwo said...

oh my goodness, Mag, that is gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love it!

And now I feel guilty about a task I really should undertake.

Marinka said...

That's a fantastic photo. It's so formal and yet so sassy!

Pilgrim/Heretic said...

What a fabulous photo!

susan said...

That is a stunning photo.

I've set aside a box containing several outfits (all the ones CG wore in the first week we met her, and generally one or two outfits from every size--as we pack away a size she's outgrown, she gets to pick one outfit to save). I wonder whether CG's adult self will look at the box and wonder where some other things are.

shrink on the couch said...

That's just adorable! How nice to have this collection.

Anonymous said...

Do you still have that move? ;-)

Very Mary said...

You seriously need to blow that up and put it on a wall. That is the BEST.

Woman in a Window said...

Ohhh, that's beautiful. How freaken wonderful that she did this! I wish I had something artful of me as a child.

Mama Cass said...

What a wonderful photo...so cool to have that of yourself.

Kyddryn said...

I have the highchair my family grew up in, and' it's still in terrific condition.

As there are no more babies in my future, the chair is used primarily as my bar (which make me giggle, don't ask me why) or as a loaner when small people visit our home.

I hope my son will use it when he has children...

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

bernthis said...

I love black and whites. My parents have almost zero photos of me. I was the third, by then they were like, screw it

painted maypole said...

that picture is awesome!

Maggie May said...

what a fantastic picture

Anonymous said...

Oh, that is such a precious photo! You were darling.

Anonymous said...

I like your writing and love your pictures. Thanks for adding some beauty to the world of blogging.