Sepia Saturday 54 : Season's Greetings To The Empty Chairs

I was looking for something Christmassy for this week's Sepia Saturday but none of the photographic albums passed down by my father or my Uncle Frank contain anything suitable. The reason, I suppose, is that back in the 1930s, except for the keen amateur, photography was a summertime occupation : and the reason for this, of course, was the light. In the days before the rapid-fire electronic flashgun, flash photography was the preserve of the brave - and to an extent, the rich - and therefore natural lighting (a.k.a. daylight) was the order of the day. And whilst it was relatively easy to grab your Box Brownie and tempt people to pose when they were sat on deckchairs enjoying the summer sun in Weston-Super-Mare, it was a greater challenge when the rain, sleet or snow was falling from battleship-grey skies. And so we will just have to imagine what their Christmas Days and their Boxing Days were like, we will have to use our mental Photoshop to paint in Christmas trees and mince pies.

The photograph comes from Uncle Frank's collection and shows (from left to right) : Auntie Miriam, her father and mother in law, and her sister in law (I really must check their details out on Ancestry) The vacant chair on the left no doubt belonged to the photographer, Uncle Frank. So seasons greetings to all, especially to the unsung heroes of Sepia Saturday, those folk of the empty chairs, the photographers.