Figure 1.-- Here is an early French postcard back snapshot. The unidentified family is all lined up outside some place in the country for a family portrait. In this case while we do not know where the photograph was taken, the postmark tells us it was taken in 1908. The postmark looks to read Chmalieu, but we can nt find such a place in France.

As in America and other Europen countries, many of early French snapshots were done on stiff paper with postcard backs. France had a very large commercial postcard industry. These were mostly personal photographs taken by families only with postcard backs. Studios also did portraits with postcard backs, but the vast majority were family snapshots. We are not sure when the first of these postcard back snpshots appeared in France, we are guessing about 1904. The earliest actual dated postcard we have archived so far is 1908 (figure 1), but we believe they began a few years earlier. They were very important contributions to the photographic record. One early inovation was framing masks done in various styles. Some postcards were done as portraits, albeit with settings outside the stidio. But we see much more than portraits. We see all kinds of images of children. We see them around home, mostly ouutside home because of the need for outside light. Home of course tells us a great deal about the vhildren's fmily and social position. Of course we not only see theu=ir home, but the children playing and the toys and gmes they played. We se them doing their chores, going to school, enjoying outings to parks and beches, and much more. Not all early amateur snap shots were done as postcard back prints, but many were.

Created: 9:58 PM 4/18/2012
Last updated: 2:32 PM 12/14/2017