Lol, so you actually do have a collection of old photos without much thematic connection?

hmm. Not quite sure what you mean. It seems like everyone in my family and husband’s family, going back generations has been photo mad. : ) We have SO many photographs. I started collecting vintage photos (as well as taking photos) in my teens - so there’s all those too. Plus, people have give n me pics once they know I loved old photos.
Anyway, given the amount of available pics - it’s often not difficult to find the weekly (or monthly) theme of VPTP themes!
Plus it's such a fun way to share with other people that “have the bug”.
Here’s a pretty cool thing: I am not buying vintage photos right now for the most part, because I’m struggling to keep up with my effort to organize them all BUT yesterday, I decided to visit a vintage store in Burlington and found this one right before I was about to leave.
Perfect for this week’s theme - and much better than the oneI had planned to post!

I love hearing you state that about hippies. Labeling is something that cultures/people love to do - I suppose a way of handling the world as it comes at us. But yes, I was a few years behind all that (not by much), but instead got the merchandised "hippie" clothes and acoutraments to wear when I was around 12-14.

Cool photo. Now I have to look up what AZO print means - and how that gives you a date range for the photo.

Thanks, Laura. I’m glad my rant didn’t put you off!
Here’s a pretty cool link, if you’re interested.
www.playle.com/realphoto

Thank you for explaining all that, it really helped me understand where you’re coming from. It’s actually very touching how much history and emotion is wrapped up in your photos and your families’ “photo madness”.

I’ve also been collecting and organizing images (before Google Images could find you any image in seconds), but mostly as raw material for collages. Those we used as psychedelic pictures, including portraits of friends like this one web.archive.org/web/20030715144631fw_/http://hap.host.sk/cyberJ/tvare/ujoeros.jpg.

So I do understand the passion for collecting and the joy of finding the perfect image for a theme, but I have to admit it’s hard for me to truly connect with historical or family photos of other people in the way you describe. For me they stay more like anonymous fragments rather than personal stories.

Still, I really appreciate you sharing your perspective – it gives me a better sense of why these projects and themes are so meaningful for you, and it’s inspiring to see how differently we can each relate to photos and still enjoy sharing them together.

Outstanding shot!

Thanks so much for your interesting response. Honestly, it gives me a little insight to others who are not that interested in my “obsession”. : )
I have often wondered whether one of the deep draws for me was connected to immigrating and leaving so much behind; giving me some control over memories and stories. (Although it did not affect my brother, cousins or other collectors that I know in the same way.)
One of the joys of the internet has been connecting with others who have this craze. (Alan Mays and Rick being examples - but many others over the years.)
I thought you might enjoy reading the story under this photo and my story (in reply to Rick) underneath it!
www.ipernity.com/doc/289709/53073536

Sorry, I also meant to add that I like the collage portrait of your friend - and it certainly would have fit right in to a late 60s/early 70s decor. Even more spectacularly if a blacklight was turned on (as they so often were!)

Lol, my “Sixties” arrived in the early 1990s in Czechoslovakia, just after the democratic changes, when the country was still blinking in the sudden light. All the underground culture that had been hidden and marginalised for so long suddenly rose to the surface: bands that had played in cellars, samizdat writers, small publishers, improvised clubs, zines photocopied to exhaustion. We swallowed it in great gulps—music in smoky basements, strange films in film clubs books that had before only existed in other dimensions, conversations that stretched until the first trams—greedy, a bit naive, but completely alive.

wow, what a great description of the awakening of a new era. Thanks, I love this!