The 100th Story
Speaker: Oh my goodness, I am so excited. I have reached my hundredth photograph. My hundredth story. And, um, it is… the photograph is exactly a hundred years old. How’s that? Hmm?
And… it was… it was taken in 1918, and I am recording my hundredth story in ninety… twenty eighteen. How is that? A hundred years later.
Um, it is a photograph of my mother, um, and three of her siblings. [Laughs] It’s actually quite a… a funny photograph in a sense, because you see first of all the four children all looking extremely serious. Um, they’re obviously holding very still. Even the little ‘un in the chair, who I think is my Auntie Bes. On, um, the left of the photo is my Uncle But; on the right of the photo is my Auntie Sis; and the little one… [chuckles] with the fringe, standing next to the chair, is my mother. Ja, Maria Magdalena, known as Mimi. And their surname was Brommer.
Now, I will be adding to this photo the back of the photo, because it says: “Four children for sale. But, Bes, Mim, Sis, Brommer. In Sterkstroom.” And BP… CP, I mean, sorry… meaning Cape Province in South Africa.
And they’re all looking that serious because in those days a photograph was a very, um… sort of involved thing. And the children… anybody who had a photo portrait taken—apart from the fact it was expensive—was the fact that it took a long time to expose those old films. So, the only way they could make sure that the people who were in the photo, uh, held still long enough, was by having them looking serious. Because when people smile they tend to twitch or turn their heads or whatever. So there are my Mom and two of her sisters and her one brother, and they are looking extremely serious.
And my Oma… put them up for sale. [Laughs] Not really, of course. But it was… it actually just shows you my Oma and my Opa also had, um, a good sense of humor. Definitely.
So there is my hundredth photo, taken in 1918, um, of my Mom and her siblings. So, I will be expanding on this shortly. But isn’t it amazing? Hundredth photo, hundred years old. Awesome.
For More Information & Further Reading
For readers interested in the historical context of this story, here are a few areas to explore:
- Location History: Learn more about Sterkstroom, the small town in the Eastern Cape (formerly Cape Province) mentioned in the story, which was founded in 1875.
- Historical Photography: Why did people look so serious in old photos? Read about Early 20th Century Portraiture and how long exposure times required subjects to freeze their expressions.
- The Year 1918: This photo was taken during a pivotal year in history, marking the end of World War I.
- Genealogy: Interested in tracing your own South African roots? Visit the Genealogical Society of South Africa (GSSA) to start your own family research.
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