It’s not that I particularly like sepia – in fact, give me good ol’ black and white anytime. Or colour. But I belong to a small group of very sympa photographers and friends who get together in Menton and the surrounding villages to recreate the past in images of life as it was once lived. At the moment, we are ‘in the 1920s’ when sepia was still in use. In film photography, it was a chemical process carried out on silver-based photographic prints and had the advantage of being more resistant to the degradation of time. However, during the first decades of the 20th century this type of printing was being used less and less and by the 1930s had ended.
There are ways of re-creating the sepia look in digital photography from a fairly straightfoward change of colour and tone to the using of a pre-set that makes the image look like a damaged and faded postcard.
Here is a 1920s wedding that took place in the village of Gorbio last Sunday! The family pose under Gorbio’s 300 plus year old elm tree.
y
17 Comments
Great pictures, Jilly. Congratulations!
JM
Thanks so much jm. It really was the best fun although getting the photographs to look right in sepia isn’t so easy!
Hi Jilly – what an interesting topic. I still love sepia, but it has to be in the right setting. Gorbio of course is great in sepia, B&W and colour and your images are superb (of course) and ultimately timeless. Thanks, Steph
Hi Steph, Thanks for writing. Yes you are right, sepia works in the right circumstances and it does, of course, for Gorbio. It was fun trying to avoid, switches, wires, mail boxes and certainly television aerials!
Magnifique! We just traveled back in time thanks to you and the people of Gorbio, Jilly. 🙂 I love these photos! My favorite one is the woman walking away, with the bench. Nicely captured! Keep up the good work, and most importantly, keep having fun! — Véro
Vero, I too like the ones where people are walking away. It was all great fun.
Just lovely and in my favorite place to vacation…lovely Menton.
Vero, I too like the ones where people are walking away. It was all great fun.
Thanks so much J. Christina @ scribblesandsmailes.net Lovely to read your comment and to know we both love Menton.
Bravo Jilly ! I love your photos, I love Gorbio.
De magnifiques photos sépia et de superbes costumes, le tout dans un village où j’ai laissé mon cœur…
A très bientôt, à Gorbio…
José
José, I know how much you love Gorbio. Je suis si heureux que tu aime les photos. Au plaisir de te voir bientôt et merci beaucoup pour tes mots, vraiment gentils. Jilly x
beautiful work Jilly.
Michael, thank you so much for your lovely comment. Jilly x
Marvelous shots, Jilly- very retro!
William, thanks so much for hopping over to this new blog and thanks for the comment. Jilly x
The village looks good in sepia!
Thanks Petrea. The prior of the village church saw some of the photos and said that of course it would never have been like this. That the village was poor and brides – and all the rest of the family – couldn’t have afforded such beautiful clothes. No matter, it was fun to spend half a day in sepia!