Matching snapshots

Matching snapshots

The names and stories behind street photographs are often lost with the passing of time, and we were unable to identify many of the people whose images are featured in the Street Photography exhibition. However, we’ve since learnt the moving story behind one image, of two curly-haired children (above).

Published in a newspaper article about the exhibition, the photo was spotted by a member of the public who had a very similar photo (right) in her own family album, showing her late father, Michael Finn.

The two photos clearly belong to the same sequence of images, captured by a street photographer outside Central Station in late 1939. In both photos, six-year-old Michael has a reassuring arm around his two-year-old sister Margaret; their mother was probably standing nearby, out of sight. It’s believed the close‑up photo was sent to a family friend; it later found its way to us in response to our public call-out for the exhibition. The Finns retained the other photo.

Just two of the many images the photographer undoubtedly snapped that day, these photos now hold a much greater significance than could have been anticipated at the time. The photos are possibly among the last images of Margaret, who was fatally injured in a road accident not long after, on 6 January 1940.

These inexpensive snaps, quickly captured and often impulsively purchased, have crept their way into family stories, sometimes just putting a face to a name but occasionally becoming an irreplaceable record of a lost loved one.

Do you recognise yourself or someone you know in these photos? Let us know via streetphotos@slm.com.au

Related exhibition

Past

Street Photography

1930s - 1950s

Sat 8 Dec 2018 - Sun 21 Jul 2019

From the 1930s to the late 1950s commercial street photographers swarmed Sydney’s streets photographing everyday people in candid full-length portraits as they quickly passed by or stopped to pose.

See more Exhibitions

About the author

Anna Cossu

Curator

Inspired by wonderful history teachers and after her own foray as a high school teacher, Anna found herself drawn to the world of museums and heritage interpretation.

This article originally appeared in Unlocked: The Sydney Living Museums Gazette, our Members’ magazine.

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