Clues Interview.
* Clues Interview.
Clues Interview:
The photograph above has written on the back " Charlotte & daughter Sandra". I know this is a photograph of my grandmother Charlotte and my mother Sandra. The photo above has been nicely cropped and framed for a scrap book. Cropping is mentioned in most books that are about creating a family scrap book. Most will tell you how to cut away the unimportant background and leave the main focus of the photo. Cropping allows you to frame the photo with different shapes and be very creative. You can even cut the people out completely and place them in different scenes. This is not that hard to do with a graphic program on your computer. It is also fun to do this using paper materials. NOTICE! Never take a pair of scissors to an original photo no matter how unimportant it may seem to you now. Always work with a copy and keep the original in a safe place.
What are your first thoughts about this photo? Mine was that this is a photo of my mother's first birthday. There is probably no great historical fact hidden here, but I am sure it is deserving of a clear and informative caption. Read through the steps I took to find the hidden clues. You can follow the same steps with your own photo to help create a good list of questions to ask during an interview.
I first searched and found the original photograph in my grandmother's box of old photos and scanned it into the computer. This original photo is small, about 3 inches square with fluted edges. Much of the photo had been cut away when it had been cropped and I was excited to have found so much to explore within the original. I knew my grandmother would be able to give me some good information to go with this photo but I would not see her for two weeks. I decided to create a list of questions about the photo now and have it ready when I could see her.
When seeing the original photo, my first curiosity was about what my mother had received as a gift when she was 1 years old. With today's technology and now having the photo scanned in, it was easy for me to zoom in. Seeing the gift was my first clue that this photo is not what I thought it was. This is not a one year old's birthday present! So beyond the fact that this is my grandmother and my mother, what I thought I knew about this photograph no longer applied.
You can take a close look at the original photo with the virtual magnifying glass java applet by clicking on the link below. Take a close up look beyond the focus of the photo in the window that opens and see what you can find. When you close the java window you will still be here.
The Party.
This is a Java Applet popup window.Well if this is not my mother's first birthday then it might be my grandmother's birthday. Did you even notice the calendar? I did, but when I zoomed in the calendar still was not clear enough to tell what months were displayed.
Was this even at a house my grandmother was living in at that time? It must be because on the very top shelf is a vase. I know this vase, this vase has always been in my grandmother's house. It is porcelain and the rose and leaves are 3 dimensional and stick out of the base.
I asked my mother what she knew of the photo, and she was not much help. She recognized the photo but had also thought it was her first birthday. Now I wasn't even sure it was a birthday.
Here are the questions I created:
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1. What was the celebration and for who?
3. What is the date?
4. Where was this house you were living in?
5. Do you remember the glass or crystal dishes?
6, You have your jeans rolled up almost to the knee, was this in style?
6. What is the little creature hiding behind the chair?
7. Is the child that is on the very edge of the photo my mothers sister?
8. What about the vase? I did not know you had owned it for so long.
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Now I had to wait for two weeks to get any answers. Click on the title below to open a popup window. When you close the window you will still be here.
Two Weeks Later............
