Young Woman with Book and Tree, Evocative Early, Hand-colored, Degraded Cased Ambrotype copy block one imagines

one imagines

The wax steak

with its gold leafed wood body and bronze head and feet

later to become A

with tissue paper in between each page

Young Woman with Book and Tree, Evocative Early, Hand-colored, Degraded Cased Ambrotype copy block one imaginesIt has been a while since I found a cased photo I really loved for its degradation, but this is one of those (though I would certainly really love this one in pristine condition too!) For me the all over craquelure makes this lovely young woman feel extra moody and the image all the more an object hovering in between the worlds of past and present, dead and living, substance and spirit. With hands on a book in front of her, pinked cheeks, and painted