Friday, February 14, 2014

Sepia Saturday 215 : Clumsy Clumps Of Ink


Our Sepia Saturday theme this weeks features a picture postcard of a remarkably busy Jamaica Street in Glasgow. There are horse trams and carriages and people bustling along the crowded streets against the backdrop of a rather good photograph. And the whole thing is served up in a pleasing sepia glaze.

My Sepia Saturday entry is also a postcard and dates from around about the same period of time (at a guess mine dates from 1904/5). I match the crowded street and I can set horse tram against horse tram and come out tops. My Regent Street view has a clutter of carriages and Lowryesque figures stalking the sidewalks. And mine is in colour! 


But, quite clearly, colour isn't everything. The pin-sharp sepia is replaced by Primary School daubs of dog-sick yellow. The detailed photogravure is replaced by clumsy clumps of ink. Both postcards show crowded scenes of 100 years ago, but my postcard merely provides a hint of what the world was like compared to a first class seat in a photographic time machine.

You can travel back to the past by visiting the Sepia Saturday Blog and following the various links.

23 comments:

  1. A clump of color is like Picasso would do...just throw some color in somewhere. Do not dispair, Alan!

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  2. What a lovely postcard! I adore it! You should add it to Postcard Friendship Friday! (grin) Have a great day, my Friend.

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  3. And Happy Valentine's Day!!!

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  4. You and Postcardy are simpatico this week with postcards popped in yellow.

    Another point of comparison is the orientation of the street curving to the right in the distance.

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  5. One would almost think you chose the theme with this card in mind ... The color doesn't make it exact, but it does give it a painterly quality.

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  6. Anonymous10:33 PM

    Somehow the softer lines of the buildings and the more haphazard traffic in your example are more pleasing to the eye than the rigid lines of the theme image. An attractive postcard.

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  7. I am in agreement on this. Your picture, although serving a purpose of sorts, does not match the prompt picture for quality. It's more of a representation. However, it paints a picture in its own way.

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  8. I really love your Regent's Street postcard! At first glance I thought it was a Paris Street Scene. I guess in spite of all the photographers in my family, I am primarily an art person.

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  9. While you don't get as much detail with the printed color, I think you get a better feel for the atmosphere of the scene.

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  10. A wonderful postcard with so much detail in it. - you can spend ages looking over it. it occurred to me it would make a challenging jigsaw!

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  11. I guess it would have been hand coloured before being printed, or is it from an original sketch? I rather like it.

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  12. Take a bow for the description of the week. Which one? Why 'dog-sick yellow' of course. The enlargement really brings out the Lowryesque nature of the pedestrians.

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  13. You'd wonder why someone chose to colour the street yellow. Probably best not to think about that too much.

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  14. I suppose they could only be so creative with the limitations back then...a unique post card I think. And sometime in a post I must use that phrase, "clumsy clumps of ink" I recall the old fountain pens could make such a display.

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  15. Color does soften the mood, and highlights areas that get lost or faded within a colorless scene.

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  16. Horse trams! Did someone say horse trams?
    I'm glad I happened to stop by for a particulalry delightful Sepia Saturday.

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  17. Accidental modern art that was ahead of its time! If only we could read the ad on the sandwich board man.

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  18. I'm not a fan of the clumsy spotty ink, either. But I'm trying to figure out what all those high wires or lines spanning the street are? Too early for power lines. What are they?

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  19. Practically a perfect match!

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  20. What a curious card, I thought at first it was a photograph until I squinted at the paper seller. I've only been to Regent Street once and remember everything being taller but maybe that is the perspective of the card.

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  21. I like to read books of bygone days, now when they describe a street scene, I will have a better idea of what it looked like, great post Alan, hope you and yours had a wonderful loving Valentine's Day!

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  22. I thought at first that the Regent St traffic was all one way, and then realised it was actually a freestyle event!

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  23. Horse drawn trams are so wonderful --- right there on the edge of change. BTW I thought the postcard was quite lovely.

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