This glass plate negative is from Sam Hall’s site ChattanoogaHistory.com. He named it Wrinkles and Lace. (Sam generously let me use one of his photos in Grievous Deeds.)
There’s no information about the woman and the girl in this picture, but Sam speculates it’s a grandmother and granddaughter. The photo is peculiar—not in the traditional sense, because it just looks like a semi-formal picture of the two family members on an exceptionally clean front porch.
But the woman is very mysterious. I don’t like her looks—something about her seems wicked. Even the expression on the little girl’s face seems a little off.
from ChattanoogaHistory.com
Who knows though? I’m not great at reading people. I can notice things about the way a person is dressed or how they act, but I mean discerning something about who that person is just from looking at them. I know a few people who can look at someone and know immediately if that person is honest or scheming or likely to double-cross you to get ahead. And eventually they’re proven to be right! But that’s not me so take my reading of this woman and girl with a grain of salt!
What’s your impression?
old spirituals 
Enlarge the photo. Look closely at the faces of both subjects. They appear to have bruises and marks about their face. Does the young girl have two black eyes? Perhaps “Paw” was abusive. OR, are their faces the result of working hard in the fields under the hot sun?
Photography was still relatively new at the time this was taken. Photography portraits were perceived as being no different than sitting for a painting. Subjects were expected to have expressionless faces.
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Ah! That could be the case. I don’t see any bruises on the woman but the girl does indeed look like she has at least one black eye, maybe two. I looked to see if the grandmother had bruised or swollen knuckles but I can’t tell. She does have very small hands.
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Both have very dark skin probably from working in the fields. They look worn and tired to me. The young one looks hopeless and exhausted. The old one has lost that look, probably got way past that years ago, and is just hardened and stoic. I wonder what the importance of the day was. It could actually be the girls mother because women worked hard and aged very quickly in those days and also had children for as long as it was possible. The woman might have had the girl in her late 40s and might only be in her late 50s now. Who knows. I hope they found some happy times together.
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Both have very dark skin probably from working in the fields. They look worn and tired to me. The young one looks hopeless and exhausted. The old one has lost that look, probably got way past that years ago, and is just hardened and stoic. I wonder what the importance of the day was. It could actually be the girls mother because women worked hard and aged very quickly in those days and also had children for as long as it was possible. The woman might have had the girl in her late 40s and might only be in her late 50s now. Who knows. I hope they found some happy times together.
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You and Judy gave such a different interpretation to what I was thinking. I like it much better than my dark suspicions about the woman. And you are right. Hard work can age a person very quickly.
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The little girl is clean and dressed very nicely. She may have the same tendency as my husband and youngest daughter to have very dark circles under their eyes when very tired. Jax mentioned the sombre faces in photographs of that time. The girl also has a hand on the shoulder of the older woman, which seems to me to be a sign of affection.
The woman could be the grandmother or mother of the child. Women bore children when they were much older back then and even were married with children at fourteen years of age. She looks to have had a very hard life and her hands are tanned and not afraid of work. The marks on her face could be skin cancer from working in the fields. I don’t sense any evil in this woman, just tiredness.
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A very good analysis and a much kinder interpretation! 💕
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