"A Very Convincing Lie"

I love this thought--the acknowledgement of a possibility--from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab.  A similar thought has crossed my mind more than once.

"There’s this family photo," he says, "not the one in the hall, this other one, from back when I was six or seven.  That day was awful.  Muriel put gum in David’s book and I had a cold, and my parents were fighting right up until the flash went off.  And in the photo, we all look so . . . happy.  I remember seeing that picture and realizing that photographs weren’t real.  There’s no context, just the illusion that you’re showing a snapshot of a life, but life isn’t snapshots, it’s fluid.  So photos are like fictions.  I love that about them.  Everyone thinks photography is truth, but it’s just a very convincing lie.”

I have often wondered, when looking at some of my old family photographs, exactly what happened before the camera's shutter snapped.  So often I think I can see the hint of a smile in the eyes or about the mouth.  Had the photographer told a joke, or said "Say cheese," or had a member of the group piped up with a humorous quip? 

But among my family photos there is one in which nearly everyone looks either neutral, sour, or angry.  Only the young lady in the center bears the hit of a smile and the little girl on the right wears a full smile. (Click the photo to enlarge in a new screen, click again to enlarge again.)

Could it be that the "convincing lie" in this photo is that the family is truly a happy family caught in the midst of some unpleasantness just before the photographer snapped the photo?  The photo, a full-page black and white photocopy, was among the papers of my aunt, Polly Meinzen, after she died.  There were no names or a date noted anywhere.  Who knows what size the original image was, perhaps a tiny 2" x 4" snapshot, or maybe larger.  I wish she'd at least made a color photocopy, or better yet, had a real copy made.  I wish I had more but I'm grateful to have this.

Based on the dress sleeves of the two young women, back left, I date this image to about mid 1890s, 1894-1896.  I can identify the older man and woman as Henry and Elizabeth (Armitage) Meinzen.  The man at front left is their son, Henry.  The others are likely their children.

Henry, on the left, born in 1870, would have been about 25.
Other possible children are
> Hannah, born 1875, would have been about 20-21.
> Isabelle, born about, would have been about 15-16.
> Mina, born 1885, would have been 10-11.
> Lula, born 1887, would have been about 8-9.
> Bertha, born 1888, would have been about 7-8.
> W.C.R. Bob, my grandfather, born 1892, would have been about 3-4.
> Jacob, born 1893, would have been about 2-3.

I suspect the little blond boy in the center front is Jacob, and the little boy dressed in black is Bob.  But the girls....  Who could guess their ages and which is which?  I believe the young lady, upper left with the pouty face, is not one of Henry and Elizabeth's children.  She is in other family photos but my aunt, Doris (Meinzen) Dray, did not recognize her as one of her aunts.  Unless I find someone else who has this photograph with names and a date, I doubt I'll ever know for sure who the children are.

Do you have family photographs that you think show something other than the truth?  A photo snapped in the second everyone smiled when just before they were arguing?  The shutter opened just at the moment when everyone grimaced?  Photos showing "a very convincing lie?"  Or perhaps a photograph isn't a lie, just a split-second of real life?

–Nancy.

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