I have been working through my mother Jeanette Snyder's papers — including a cash of drawings, and strips of contact sheet photographs (many that were never developed and for which the negatives disappeared many years ago) on her research of the Tibetan Lhamo in 1964. She rote a wonderful article "The World Beneath the Tents" which included an account of this long summer's day in Darjeeling, India, beneath the Mahabharat Range, watching the Lhamo actors perform their folk operas. It is a wonderful article and so many of the well known actors she saw on that day (and who are in the accompanying photographs) have long since died.
But in all those photographs, I couldn't find one of her — until now. I took another look at the thin strips of photographs with their tiny black frames with a frenzy of activity occurring within them. I had to squint and then finally scan them in order to see them more clearly in photoshop. And then — there she was at number 18 — not her full face, for of course her eyes were fixed forward on the drama unfolding before her, but I know her braid, her bangs, the curve of her cheek resting against her fist. Here is the strip of photos — so you can see her watching the play. As I did, you will need to click the image to see a larger version. I think this was one of the happiest days of her life.
And I found these too — field drawings of what she saw — perhaps just in case the photos didn't turn out.
This is wonderful! Makes me want to assign a photos-n-field sketches assignment for people and kids. There’s something sort of magical about this record – seeing the photo of that frozen-in-time moment next to the result of the movement in that space (the drawing). Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Oh thank you…I felt very grateful when I saw the image in the fragment. I’ve had this material for a long time — and used a bit of it for the article in JoMA — but it was like I was suddenly seeing it for the first time and it’s weird because I was looking for a shot of her the first time I put the article together. So…maybe since her death, my eye has gotten better at finding her. (There’s an Ask Baba Yaga question in that last sentence!)
This is so charming. I had nine year with my mother before she died,
and I have many early photographs of her, which are wonderful, but I wish I could have had those wonderful 1920’s Flappers dresses. I never had a chance to get them. But at least I can see her going through from
then to 1940’s cool styles.
I love looking at the old photographs — they really are a treasure and I am grateful to the women in my family who seemed to save a lot of them over many generations. The down side is, nothing was really organized (or if it was, fate served on several occasions to upend the piles) and I now find myself trying to sort, date, and identify all kinds of moments in their lives. Still — doing that sort of archival work is fun — and a kind of research for stories.
Its true, you do feel taken away… being apart of the show – can almost hear the music, and your mother laughing… So often slides seem so static to me. And I totally agree with Gypsy that seeing the drawings with the slides adds so much more personal detailed information! Gives a little peek into what she was thinking at that very moment… lovely.