Lost + Found Photos

Newsletter + On This Day

Sep 08, 2024

BOYS + GIRLS (CALDWELL, IDAHO) BY RUSSELL LEE (1941)

This is one of my favorite photos. It’s often seen cropped, focusing solely on the boys, but I find it much more interesting (and intriguing) uncropped, where the girls and the full film frame are visible.

Yesterday, while (re)organizing my Photos library, I (re)found the original image.

With over 37K images saved from the internet (over several years), my library needs more regular maintenance than I’ve been giving it. As a result, I tend to “lose” photos, only to rediscover them later—usually long after I’ve forgotten why I was looking for them in the first place. Fingers crossed, the “let’s-get-organized” day helps!

Now, let’s talk about Russell Lee’s striking photograph:

WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?
ARE THE BOYS AND GIRLS GAY?
OR JUST BEING AFFECTIONATE AND PLAYFUL?

Who knows. Like most vintage photos, if there is an “official” story, I haven’t found it. So it’s left up to the viewer to interpret the image for themselves. A photographic fan fiction if you will.

Lately, I’ve seen an increase in requests (via YouTube comments) to share more information about the images used in my montages. The truth is, I share whatever information I find when I save the photos. Most photos don’t include much, if any, information. I feel very lucky if a subject’s and/or photographer’s name is included.

Sometimes I do use reverse image searches to find out more. But I don’t have the time to research every image. Not ideal, but neither is history…or the internet. We make the best of what we have. Make. It. Work.

In my book, history is as messy and imperfect as my Photos library and is more than worth preserving and sharing. For present and future generations alike.

Thanks for reading!
Clint

P.S. Click here to see a few more of my favorite photos.

ON THIS DAY = SEPTEMBER 8

BIRTHDAYS

PATSY CLINE (1932)
Singer-Songwriter
P!NK (1979)
Singer-Songwriter

“THE WILLOW IS MY FAVORITE TREE. I GREW UP NEAR ONE. IT'S THE MOST FLEXIBLE TREE IN NATURE AND NOTHING CAN BREAK IT - NO WIND, NO ELEMENTS, IT CAN BEND AND WITHSTAND ANYTHING.”
P!nk

EVENTS

Michelangelo's statue of David is unveiled in Florence. (1504)
1st permanent European U.S. settlement is founded at St. Augustine, FL. (1565)
Dutch surrender colony of New Netherland (including New York). (1664)
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas meet in Paris for the first time and stay together until Stein’s death in 1946. (1907)
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins, premieres. (1960)
Small ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter attract 437 young men interested in forming The Monkees, the world’s first manufactured boy band. Three are chosen, with British actor-singer Davy Jones already cast. (1965)
Vietnam veteran Sgt. Leonard Matlovich appears on the cover of TIME magazine stating, “I am a homosexual.” Leonard Matlovich was the first gay US service member to come out. When he died, he was buried without a name and known only as Gay Vietnam Veteran. His epitaph reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” (1975)

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that federal immigration authorities cannot prevent lesbians and gay men from entering the country purely on the basis of their sexuality. (1983)
The Oprah Winfrey Show is first broadcast nationally. (1986)
Rachel Maddow becomes the first openly gay anchor of a major prime-time news program in the United States as host of The Rachel Maddow Show. (2008)
Kylie Minogue releases Can't Get You Out of My Head, her biggest hit. (2001)
Ana Irma Rivera Lassén becomes the third woman, first Black woman, and first openly lesbian to be the president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association of lawyers. She has received many awards and honors for her work in the area of women’s rights and human rights, including the Capetillo-Roqué Medal from the Puerto Rican Senate, the Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize, and the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal. She is a practicing attorney and serves on the faculty of several universities in Puerto Rico; she currently serves on the advisory council to the Program for Equality and Gender Equity of the Puerto Rican Judicial Branch. (2012)