1940s Women Sunbathing on Wooden Dock Lake Swimwear Photograph Light Leak

USD 11.24

Condition: Used

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Description

View 1940s Women Sunbathing on Wooden Dock Lake Swimwear Photograph Light Leak with current marketplace pricing, condition, product images and item details. The print itself is finished with a decorative, deckled edge, a hallmark of amateur photography from the 1940s into the early 1950s, and its slightly curled corner and a small reddish speck on the border attest to decades of careful storage. Three women lounge upon the weathered planks of a wooden dock, their bodies arranged in a relaxed, informal tableau that captures the easy leisure of a mid-century summer afternoon. The woman at left reclines on her back, arms folded behind her head, her gaze meeting the camera with a direct, unguarded ease. Her companions lie face-down, mirrored poses with hands tucked beneath their chins, their attention turned toward the dark, rippling water. The woman at center wears a light, possibly striped, one-piece suit, while the figure at right, in dark high-waisted bottoms and a pale top drawn up to bare her midriff, offers a glimpse of the era’s evolving swimwear fashions. A wooden bench at the left edge holds a folded towel or garment, and below it, a pair of men’s oxford dress shoes sits neatly on the dock, a quiet suggestion of a companion momentarily absent, perhaps having just pushed off in the small wooden rowboat that drifts at the frame’s right edge. The setting, a placid lake or calm river, is rendered in the deep blacks and soft silvers of a gelatin silver print, its surface marked by subtle light leaks and a faint, atmospheric fogging that lends the scene a dreamlike, sun-warmed quality. The print itself is finished with a decorative, deckled edge, a hallmark of amateur photography from the 1940s into the early 1950s, and its slightly curled corner and a small reddish speck on the border attest to decades of careful storage. The verso bears a pink ink stamp, rotated perpendicular to the image, reading “PHOTO V R-FADF BALANTA” above a date of “JUL 28 197-,” the final digit of the year lost to fading. A faint, partially legible line beneath the date may reference “Freetown B.,” potentially indicating a West African origin, though the name could equally point to a studio or processing lab. A dark, stamped number “685T” appears nearby, an internal identifier from the commercial processor. These markings, along with the absence of any handwritten inscription, situate the photograph within the vast vernacular archive of vacation snapshots, a candid document of a specific place and moment, preserved not for posterity but for personal memory. The image stands as a quiet artifact of its time, capturing the social rituals of swimming, sunbathing, and the shared, unspoken camaraderie of a summer day. Condition: Used. Category: Collectibles › Photographic Images › Photographs.