Flea market – my last hope to survive boredom. No, it’s not about buying and owning things – it’s all about hunting specific items. Last Saturday I was lucky. I found in an old and dirty banana box eight old photographs. Every single one full of storytelling and history. One is a true treasure hoard.

This group of very well-dressed women having a coffee klatsch/tea party in front of Viennese photographer Ludwig Grillich. I imagine some gossip mongerers, who were the leading „what’s proper“ ladies of the last 40 ball seasons.

Sadly it is all about making up a story and checking out possibilites, because the writing on the back of the photograph is – well, let’s call it „rudimentary“.

„2. Hälfte Juni 1909“ is just a date, reduced to almost nothing. I bet, I could have found out the year by my own, because Ludwig Grillich (1856–1926), was a Viennese photographer. Grillich was well known and very well established. He owned ateliers between 1885 and 1913 (?). He gained the title „Hof-Photograph“ as an official photographer of the monarchs. Austrian, Russian and Swedish nobles were sitting for portraits in front of his camera. Once he was „promoted“ by the upper class, he photographed a lot of noble, rich and famous people – one of them was Sigmund Freud. And he made headlines, because he paid his employees very poorly. Last clue – besides clothes or jewellery of the ladies and interieur – would have been the telephone number. It would have been easy to found out, when his atelier got this number.

The book in the foreground „Daheim Kalender 1906“ (terminus post quem – picture must be younger than 1906) is the only hint, which causes reasonable doubt to the handwriting (1909) on the back of the picture! On the other hand, this calendars are like books and were kept for long years.

Think about adding basic information to your own pictures for the next generations. Give answers in advance to the essential questions most people would ask:

Who is involved?
What is happening?
Where is it happening?
When is it happening?
Why is it happening?
How is it happening?

Do you want to know more? Read this!