Old French Photos

[mr rusty]

This is quite an interesting collection http://www.bernardmoncet.fr/les-annees-1900-1920/

 

[AgX]

Thank you!

That one photo of that cabinetmaker shows that dressing with some stupid advertizing on is nothing new... (he likely was a cyclist).

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for the link. My fixed wheel bike from the 1950s but which I rode in the early 60s was similar to that of the first cyclist from before 1920. Even the chain ring looks similar. Bikes have changed more in the last 20 years than they did in the previous 70 years.

A fixed wheel and one brake only on the front wheel was still being used for 10 mile time trials in the 60s

pentaxuser

 

[foc]

Very interesting, I find the eyes in some shots very striking.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Arthurwg]

Great stuff. When I was in Sete a few years ago I came across a box of old glass plate negatives..Most were stylized portraits, but one, which I brought home, showed two WWI soldiers shooting over a hedge with a dead soldier lying beside them in the road.

 

[jay moussy]

The picture with a bunch of young men on the carriage is specifically French: these are "conscrits", as in. mandatory military conscription, for their three-year military service.
They just finished initial registration, and it was tradition to celebrate, like the guy with the trumpet, probably drink to excess, sing lewd songs, what young men do! It was still practiced when I was a child late 1950s.
Socially, the military conscription has an interesting side benefit: different social classes got to know one another, often developing lifelong unlikely friendships.

It is great to see a record of it. Is the photographer/carpenter in the picture?

 

[Louis Nargi]

Thanks vary interesting

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

When someone says French photos, I think of something else.

 

[jvo]

very enjoyable... documentation - one of the best uses of photography!

 

[Down Under]

When someone says French photos, I think of something else.

You and many others of us, Alan...

In a somewhat "nicer" vein, Monsieur Moncet has an interesting web site (not unlike that of our Monsieur Klein). His images show a good eye and good taste and his introduction is pleasantly modest for someone who is as skilled with a camera as he.

As well, and I greatly admire him for this, he has done an excellent job of building himself an online portfolio from a simple Wordpress site, which as I'm now discovering is not as easy a task as it is presented as being. I've been at it off and on for the last 18 months, and it may well be that my mindset is more a throwback to the good old IBM Selectric typewriter days than the many miracles my Macbook Air is capable of performing. The word Luddite comes to mind. I struggle on with it, and I'm determined to prevail and succeed, eventually.

Then will come the fun of trolling thru my 50,000 images, film and digital, to decide which 50 or so are best worth putting up.

To return to the topic at hand, Bernard's site is well worth exploring. He has a fine eye for detail, and good taste (or maybe it would be better to say good luck) as a collector of old French images.