Sepia Saturday 9, July 2016; Mesmerized;

In the 1870s,  New Yorks Department stores started to display Christmas cheer.
The elaborate displays  were loved and appreciated  by young  and old, waiting with anticipation for the unveiling of Christmas window displays. Many department stores  have been well-known for their impressive Christmas window spectacles for generations. The availability of large sheets of plate glass in the nineteenth century  led to the concept of using department store windows to attractively display the store's merchandise.

CHILDREN LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOW OF MACY’S IN 1907.

1920's  a child's pleasure.

Wigs display in Paris.

A shop window display of underwear, c 1935.

 Photograph showing a display of underwear in a lingerie shop including the 'Body Belt'. 

The notice reads: 'For the Slim - We introduce the new Body Belt with a unique graduated all-way stretch'. 

The manufacturer appears to be J Roussel. (Daily Herald Archive / SSPL via Getty Images) 

Shop in Murano Italy, displaying Murano jewellery. (My daughter Lilli.) 2007

Photos/Text Ts
Old Photos pinterest

Thinking about thinking;

A mindless society worships  a cultureless shell of nothing, fast food, fast news, banality, mindless celebrities, fast consumerism, debts,  drugs  to forget their misery….a Kardashian  what’s the name,  has millions of mindless  worshippers .

What does this tell about the intellect of a society?

It is a like a religion to these people.

Sepia Saturday 25 June 2016

.... Our theme image is entitled "Woman Reads As Baby Sleeps"  It might seem like a "nice" bland and uncomplicated image but, believe me, there is a lot to discuss. Let's just see where Sepians go with it! 

The earliest images of mother and child found in the Catacombs of Rome, date from the Early Christian Church. After Mary was proclaimed Theotokos, Godbearer,  it became common to use her image in paintings and sculptures. 

Mary and child were the most used image through the Byzantine, Medieval and Early Renaissance for over a thousand years. Duccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, have turned their artistic skills to create Mother and child images. 

Italian Mother and Baby, living in tenements of New York. He  captured the misery of urban poverty as well as the tenacity of life. This forlorn mother with her swaddled baby is evocative of Mary and of many paintings of "Madonna and Child." 

In the early 1960s, myself and my firstborn daughter Marie-Louise.

Photo/text Ts