Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
Above: On the left, The Fire Department. In the middle the Town Offices. On the right the Police Department. In the background behind the flag is the Post Office, possibly the ugliest building in the Village.
Below: A bell outside the Fire Department in memory of the deceased members of the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department.
Taken with a Sony RX100 III
Last Sunday morning I had just finished “chatting” with a friend who lives nearby. I was feeling hungry and decided to go into Briarcliff Village to get something to eat. I wanted to go to The Patio (see above). For once it was a nice, sunny day and I knew that The Patio fills up quickly on such days. This meant that I had to get moving in order to beat the rush. I hastily got ready and off I went. I had a pleasant breakfast and had just left the restaurant when my phone rang. It was a Canadian friend that I had arranged to talk to at 11:00 am, an appointment that I had completely forgotten in my rush to get to the restaurant. I apologized profusely and we set another time to speak, and we hung up.
My friend and her family had visited me in Briarcliff Manor a couple of times, but I couldn’t recall if I’d ever shown her around the village. So, I decided to walk home, taking photographs as I went. I planned to share these photographs to give her a feel for what Briarcliff Manor is like.
The Patio is one of my favorite eateries. I like to go there with a book and just sit there reading and watching the world go by while I eat my lunch. They serve diner-like food, but with a Mexican twist. For example, you can have bacon and eggs for breakfast, or you can have huevos rancheros or huevos mexicanos. When the COVID pandemic hit they almost immediately built an entire, new patio area on the side of the building so that people could eat outside. It’s quite a popular place.
In the picture above you can see two windows. The building that houses The Patio was once the original Briarcliff Manor Fire Station and the two windows made up the entrance where the fire trucks went in and out. Above were the town offices.
Taken with a Sony RX100 III
Of course I’ve heard of donut tires, even used them, but I mean…really.
Taken with a Sony RX100 M3
A friend of mine has a problem with her water main. Water bubbles up to the surface and accumulates in a small hole. It seems to stop at this level and doesn’t overflow the hole. Very Strange.
Anyway, we passed by the other day and heard a ‘plop’ as something jumped into the accumulated water. Looking more closely we noticed that a number of small frogs had taken up residence. Luckily, one of them was kind enough to stay at ground level and pose for me. He/she is the frog (two views of a single amphibian) in the pictures. Eventually he/she got bored, dove into the water and disappeared.
Taken with a Sony RX100 M3
The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society where I volunteer is located in the same building as the Briarcliff Manor Public Library. Occasionally the library has to dispose of books. When that happens anything that seems to relate to history comes our way first in case we’re interested (which we often are). This fascinating book came along recently. It’s perfect for someone (like me) who’s interests combine history (particularly military history, and even more particularly the US Civil War with photography)
Its title is Gettysburg. Journey in Time and it’s by William Frassanito. He was educated at Gettysburg College and did his graduate work in American cultural history in the Cooperstown Graduate program. While at Gettysburg College, he was a guide for three years at the Gettysburg National Park. He served with the U.S. Army in both Germany and Vietnam, and in Vietnam, where he won the Bronze Star, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as an intelligence analyst.
In his conclusion Frassanito writes:
For more than a hundred years, the Gettysburg photographs have remained in a confused and neglected state. Their value as historical documents was realized well before the turn of the century, but their value as historical source materials was basically left untapped. A large number of the views were arbitrarily attributed to the famous Mathew Brady; captions and dates were vague and often incorrect; significant relationships between scenes went unnoticed; and although the views appeared time and time again in monumental works such as Miller’s ten-volume Photographic History of the Civil War, for all practical purposes no one thought to question the credits or the captions, or otherwise thought to treat the Gettysburg photographs as a distinct series.
By identifying the confusion that has existed, and by substituting order for that confusion, I have attempted to demonstrate what can be done – and indeed, what must be done – with historical photographs if they are ever to be accurately employed by students of the past.
The value of the early photograph is manifold. It is a unique document rich in information. It provides a dimension to the study of history available nowhere else. Moments in time have been captured and preserved, and it is for us today to be aware of the fact that unless such images are gathered, researched, organized and used to the fullest, we will be doing ourselves, as well as the photographers who recorded them, a great injustice. The loss, however, will mainly be ours.
Warning: some of the posts below depict dead soldiers on the battlefield, which may be disturbing for some.
