Sepia Saturday has gone back to using images as theme prompts rather than words and it is a change I welcome. I am always more comfortable with images rather than words : for some reason I find it easier to skim visual ideas off the surface of my consciousness rather than solid words which seem to sink to the depths. This is why I am not a poet. This is why I am attracted to blogging. Blogging allows you to stitch images together with a fine thread of words. So my thoughts skim off the theme image of a miniature train and come to land in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset. It is a classic sepia snap taken by my Uncle Frank back in the 1930s. In his Frankish way he has titled the photograph "The Devonian Express coming into Weston Station".
I am sure that there are people out there who will tell me what type of engine it is and will be able to pin-point the precise date by the number of bogie wheels on the coal tender. But my thoughts do not land on the train, but on the waiting passengers. My enlarged image provides a perfect example of the advantages of the lack of quality and definition you got with cheap cameras eighty years ago. You are left with nothing but light and dark to stimulate your imagination : what is he reading, where is she going, will they meet, will they love?
No doubt they will simply climb aboard the 2.45 to Paddington without ever knowing of their brief encounter. Without ever knowing of their starring role in a blog post seventy-five years down the line. Who knows.
If you have a little time to spare whilst waiting for whatever type of train you are waiting for, step on over to the Sepia Saturday Blog and follow the links.
Could he be reading a Bradshaws guide? In the 1930s one would have cost him all of 2s 6d.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps they will climb aboard the 2:45 and the only seat left for her is next to him.
ReplyDeleteWould the Devonian express call at Paddington?
DeleteWhat goes down has to come back
DeleteI like the way the photo is framed and how it captures the train, station, and people.
ReplyDeleteSuch a romantic! I'm going to have to start looking at photos differently, finding the possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI see her with a real scowl on her face. She doesn't like this guy. Could he be her husband?
ReplyDeleteI think it's the photographer who makes her wary. She sees right through - or past - Reading Man, while he is either oblivious to both, or just pretending.
ReplyDeleteShe looks quite disgusted with him. Like he can't read the train schedule properly. I expect she's saying "here, give it to me. Let me see it."
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just saw Brief Encounter last week. What a great train love story.
Nancy
"I am sure that there are people out there who will tell me what type of engine it is and will be able to pin-point the precise date by the number of bogie wheels on the coal tender."
ReplyDeleteI'm not that much of a nerd, although......
My approach to viewing old photographs is very much like yours, Alan. I immediately began wondering, what does she have in that bag?
ReplyDeleteShe looks thoroughly chesed off. Perhaps someone was supposed to meet her and take that heavy bag from her.
ReplyDeleteThey came all that way for an outing, she thought, and all he's done is read. Read and buy books, which she is lugging around in her bag.
ReplyDeleteDoes she have her hand on her hip? Maybe she is waiting for her fiance to elope and he is late or stood her up? And to top it off, some tourist just captured her moment of embarrassment, abandonment and misery to be posted on the internet. (I love using photos as writing prompts, lol!)
ReplyDelete"In his Frankish way ..." You are so funny, Alan. I'm glad that we went back to this way too.
Kathy M.
I like the way you look at photos Alan. Instead of seeing just the "big picture" you see the smaller details that sometimes tell a much bigger story.
ReplyDeleteThe Dress & Hat are Summery .......It isn't raining...The Sun looks to shining.....the train seems to be on time....Ah Nostalgia!!!!
ReplyDeleteWonderfully put. A brief encounter indeed. The people we pass each day who rarely make a lasting impression. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the people first, too...but my Spencer only saw the train... haha...and we had to stay and look for an extra moment. :)
ReplyDeleteAnother accidental art photo with just the right mix of line and light. And the perspective makes the train into a miniature too.
ReplyDeleteI too always find the people more interesting. They were always better dressed it seems and I always wonder who they were, where they were going, what they were thinking.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know how brief it was!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe they got to sit nearby and got acquainted, stayed in touch and eventually got married... or not!!
;)~
HUGZ