Comments on: The Village Photographer

The Village Photographer

TimothyMason — Sat, 21 May 2005 08:42:16 -0800

Au fond de l'épicerie, un trésor de Kabylie. Lost photographs, found again.

By: fossil_human

fossil_human — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:08:36 -0800

Those are great pictures. I wish there was some text to go along with them, to explain anything about them. (Unless there was and I missed the link.)

By: TimothyMason

TimothyMason — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:24:45 -0800

I'm afraid you have to buy 'Le Monde', and the text is in the weekend magazine - in French. Basically, the story is that these were taken by a village photographer, at the back of the grocery store.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:29:53 -0800

me too fossil--wonderful pics.

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:43:45 -0800

Fascinating photographs. Reminds me of Disfarmer.

By: scheptech

scheptech — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:44:42 -0800

I like how the hanging drapery theme is used to create an impression of folks at home, or something, in the grocer's studio. There's a few sets of drapes, the flooring changes. I wonder if the subjects got to chose their preferred patterns? I wonder what they thought about the whole process, especially the older ones, would they have believed years later millions would have access to their images?

By: taursir

taursir — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:48:02 -0800

Magnifique.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 21 May 2005 10:00:35 -0800

It really wasn't that long ago that people would always go to a local studio to commemorate special events and things--sad that that's totally gone (except for Sears' kids pictures, i guess).

By: TimothyMason

TimothyMason — Sat, 21 May 2005 10:04:05 -0800

Here's a link with some explanation of where the photos come from - in French

By: TimothyMason

TimothyMason — Sat, 21 May 2005 10:05:13 -0800

And here are more photos from the same collection.

By: indices

indices — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:21:30 -0800

wikipedia to the rescue

By: derangedlarid

derangedlarid — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:32:35 -0800

thanks ericb for the disfarmer link...

By: gubo

gubo — Sat, 21 May 2005 13:34:20 -0800

Form Timothy's links: the photos were taken by Lazhar Mansouri in the village of Ain Beïda in northeastern Algeria.

By: fossil_human

fossil_human — Sat, 21 May 2005 17:21:47 -0800

Thanks for the text link, Timothy. That was a beautiful summary of the author's journey to the village.