Street View, Stafford, Conn. 15X.

Street View, Stafford, Conn. 15X.

Scene of a dirt street running through a pleasant residential neighborhood on a summer day. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. Perhaps it was the brilliant sunlight and shade, and the wind fanning the leafed-out trees, that compelled the Eastern photographer to stop and make this picture in teh northern Connecticut town of Stafford. The qualities of light and shadow, the patterns of the porch details, and the blurred trees make for an inviting and vivid image.