Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #159 – Postcards

When the girls from Lens-Artists invited me to be a challenge hostess, during their well-deserved vacation, I had just bought a collection of old postcards from my city. These were made by one of the most renowned local photographers “Jalón Angel“.

Above a postcard of Jalón Ángel from the beginning of the 20th century, below “my postcard” taken in 2008. As you can see the image has changed a little, the cathedral has some more tower and around have appeared new buildings.

This made me think of how many postcards we used in the past: to congratulate, as a souvenir of the places we visited or simply as collectibles.

To know its origin we have to go back in time. In 1869 the mail service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to send these new correspondences. The idea was had by Dr Emmanuel Hermman, Professor of Economics at the Military Academy of Wiener Neustadt in Austria, who circulated as private correspondence pieces of paper, without an envelope, but stamped and published on 2 July 1869 in the Austrian newspaper Neve Freir Presse the article was entitled: «New means of postal correspondence», managing to interest the Director of Post and Telegraph of Vienna, who promoted a royal ordinance on the subject approved in October of the same year.

Its use was widely extended for many years.

I still remember the thrill of choosing a postcard to congratulate my Mother. I almost always chose one with flowers. And I remember the care I put into the writing of text on the reverse: my best handwriting, avoiding misspellings… and with all my love.

Dear Mom,
We hope you have a great day,
we promise to be good today,
so you don’t have to scold us too much.
We love you…

Dad, your son and your precious daughter

And those postcards I exchanged with my cousins, always trying to pick the funniest one.

Dear cousin,

I hope you are well. I am already looking forward to the holidays so I can visit you.

Meanwhile, I’m sending you this postcard I found, that looks a lot like you.

Ana

The tradition of looking for the most representative postcards of the places we visited.

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And what about those postcard displays, rotating, on the wall, in boxes? Have you ever photographed them? I certainly did.

Today everything has changed. When we want to congratulate someone, we send them a Whatsapp. When we visit a city we take pictures with the mobile and share them at the moment with everyone… But it’s not the same, is it? Are you still using postcards this way? I’d love to hear from you.

I would like to encourage you to participate, in any way you want. You can show us some of your pictures that you would send as postcards to someone you love. Or you can simply share with us images of your favorite places.

If you have a garden full of flowers, show us a beautiful and colorful collection of floral postcards. It doesn’t need to be your garden, It can also be your neighbour’s. 😉

If you have some real postcards it would be great if you would like to share them with us, I’m sure they have a nice story behind them.

I can’t stop thanking Amy, Ann-Christine, Patti and Tina, who thought of me, once again, as hostess of Lens-Artists. It is always a lot of fun to participate in these challenges, both as a hostess and as a participant. Being the hostess is also an honour and a great responsibility.

I would also like to highlight the excellent work done by my predecessors in this month’s challenges:

John Steiner of Journeys With Johnbo – “On the Water”

Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed – “Black and White”

Rusha Sams of Oh The Places We See – “Getting Away”

Beth Smith of Wandering Dawgs – “Along Back Country Roads”

Remember to link this post and use the Lens Artists tag. Next week, the Lens-Artists team will return to their regular schedule.  On Saturday, August 7, Patti will host LAPC #160 Your inspiration, which can be a place, a subject, a person, a book–just about anything that inspires you.

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