The Jackson Four: 1904

He would have been 60 or 61 here. He lived another 38 years and died in 1942, at 99.

I was always struck by a biography of his I read that stated that late in life he had shot Kodachromes. He had started with a portable darkroom and wet plates in the early 1870s.

In any format, he is one of the greatest photographers of all time.

Natural light, I suspect, probably from overhead skylight in the studio, plus a high shutter speed, otherwise the baby would show motion blur - note how that hand is frozen in mid-air. Natural expressions result from not having to freeze in place like zombies for the exposure.

Not a costume historian, but I find it interesting that (to my eye, at least) the grandmother's dress looks MUCH older-fashioned than the daughter-in-law's-- in fact, the closely fitted black silk sleeves and bodice, the lace at the neck, and the obviously wide skirt read as very mid-nineteenth-century to me, vs. the daughter's lace and fuller up-top silhouette.

Ditto the grandma's hairstyle (parted in the middle, smooth wings over the ears) vs. the daughter's pompadour. It's somehow refreshing to think that even Back In The Day there were older people who stubbornly stuck with the personal style that worked for them in their 30s.

Do we think Clarence took the picture?

[Photographer William Henry Jackson was one of the Detroit Publishing Company's founding partners. - Dave]

And doesn't old W.H. look comfortable in that starched collar?

Captured by a good photographer. I particularly like the juxtaposition between grandmother's seams and wrinkles and the baby's smooth skin.

to draw a mustache on that baby. His mother is beautiful, she reminds me of Alma Mahler.

Wow, that woman in the middle sure knows how to pose for a photo. She just has a certain air about her that has reached across time and space.