Kodak postcard 1935

Hi Again,

I have a postcard from the mid thirties with a divided back and a placeholder for the stamp and the words POST CARD - Carte Postale printed on the back.

The postcard was clearly not intended for the commercial market. It's a photograph of a group of people having a picnic next to a car.

From the positions of the people I doubt it was taken with a self timer so I guess someone else took the photo.

My question is this - would the camera owner have gone to the developers and had the whole roll printed on postcard paper? Or would they have been shows a contact sheet? Or would they have decided after seeing a normal print to have that negative made into a postcard? Excuse my ignorance. I'm new!

I think my question comes from the fact that while no one has their eyes shut, two of the people have sandwiches in their mouths.

Thanks

Bob

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Replies

  • Dear Rob

    I think your main question has been answered, but related to your comment about the people in the photograph, I think the car may be the subject as much as the people. From the way they're dressed (the man at the back is rather over-dressed for a picnic, even then!) it looks as if the car may be a new, prized possession and the photo is of them enjoying their new-found freedom which the car has given them - or perhaps it's owned by the man at the back who has taken the others out for the day. Either way, I think it's no accident that the car features so prominently in the photograph, as it was in the 1930s that cars became more universal and more families were able to enjoy motoring.

  • Thanks Rob.

    Rob Tooley said:

    Kodak sold sensitised paper with the reverse printed for use as a postcard. So the photographer may have printed it himself.

  • Kodak sold sensitised paper with the reverse printed for use as a postcard. So the photographer may have printed it himself.

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