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Double Heeled

Found by Angela in Wyoming, Michigan

This photo was found in a drawer in a classroom of the alternative high school I attended. Since the school lacked funding, prom photos were taken by teachers with students posing in front of cheap backdrops. I’m not sure if the double exposure was an accident or done intentionally by a student in the darkroom.

Comments

  1. chrome toaster says:

    on November 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm
    There’s something very creepishly dominatrixy about this photo.

  2. Clover_in_the_Lawn says:

    on November 26, 2012 at 9:23 pm
    While this photo is amazingly mysterious, the back story is suspicous. For one thing, it must be a very old photo if it was indeed developed in a darkroom. And how could a school that lacked funding afford a color darkroom anyway? When I was in school we had photography class and learned to develop pictures in a darkroom, but only black and white. Prom photos taken by teachers of students posing in front of cheap backdrops?
    Prom photos are always taken in front of cheap backdrops! I know some teachers who are much better at taking photos than “professional” photographers. Just sayin’.

  3. orinocowomble says:

    on November 27, 2012 at 7:45 am
    This reminds me of Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott’s wife. Apparently in her youth a large studio portrait of a fellow she liked was displayed in a photographer’s show window. While walking down the street one night with her friends, someone told Zelda, “What’s he doing in there? He ought to be with you!” She apparently agreed, as she kicked in the window and took the portrait with her. Or so I’m told.

  4. Librarian in the Woodwork says:

    on November 27, 2012 at 9:37 am
    Prom photos of girls with girls? Oh, wait, it’s an “alternative high school”. Never mind.

  5. orinocowomble says:

    on November 27, 2012 at 10:12 am
    The pose is…curious…as well.

  6. Angela says:

    on July 31, 2013 at 11:31 am
    I understand your suspicion, but the equipment used in the dark room belonged to the school’s principal. I never took a photography class, so I’m not sure if they developed photos in color or not. Because of the suggestive nature of the photo, I guess it could have been taken by a student. All I know for sure is that I found this in a drawer of old photos in one of the classrooms.

  7. Clover_in_the_Lawn says:

    on January 4, 2014 at 12:00 pm
    Angela, you are lucky to have found a drawer full of random photos! I bet this wasn’t the only interesting one! Every picture tells a story.. My best guess about the double exposure is that it could have been taken with the kind of camera that you have to advance the film forward manually. If you forget to roll it forward, it takes another image in the same place on the film. (This happened to me more than once when I was a kid, “ruining” some of my best attempts!) Since the principal was into photography enough to provide darkroom equipment, maybe he/she also had some old cameras that the kids could use. Anyway, it’s a really interesting image for sure.