A couple of years ago I hit the yard sale jackpot:  a whole carton of vintage photos for a wonderful (affordable) price.  Hundreds of photos:  formal, informal, serious and silly, from the late 1800’s through the 1970’s.  Two years later I’m still finding delightful surprises when I browse through them.

Some of the photos beg to be played with.  A young couple on stilts have to become circus clowns.  The formally posed mother and daughter would much prefer to be on a sunny beach.   A girl sitting on a grassy hillside becomes the lonely heroine waiting for her love to return from war.  But sometimes there is a photo that tells it’s own story too strongly to be changed.  That was the case when I came across a photo of a woman leaning against a phone pole outside of a rundown tenement.   Who was she? Where was she going? Who took the photo? I gave her a pink dress, but otherwise left her unchanged.  I repeated a stylized version of the background and added a quote from Carl Sandburg.  I hope that I’ve done her justice.  If I’ve been successful, you will feel both her strength and her vulnerability and wish you knew her story.