More old negs

So last week saw the end of The Uncle's trip to Hungary in 1938.  What we also have in The Archives is a bunch of negatives which were, we're pretty sure, also taken in Hungary.  Unfortunately The Uncle is no longer with us to ask whether or not these were taken on the same trip.  We know his friend Balazs was a University Professor in Budapest and I suspect he was in the field of Education, much the same as The Uncle was in Belfast.  Perhaps that's how they met, through some sort of Exchange Programme.

The collection of negatives is quite interesting - it consists of a series of shots of school children, mostly taken outdoors in a park, although some are inside a school.  They are all either 6x6 or 6x9 negatives.  I'm not an expert in Central European dress styles through the ages, but they look as if they could have been taken in the late 1930s.  If that is the case, I can't help but wonder what happened to these children through the war years - Hungary suffered particularly badly during that time, as we know.

Anyway, I printed a few of the group shots out...

The staging of this shot is great.  Apart from the obvious enjoyment of the girls, I like the fact that some are leading with one foot and some with the other.  Also the girl in the background looking at the troupe as they stride towards the photographer.  Nice!  I'd bet most of those dresses were sewn at home, too...

This one above I really like - books open on the grass, very relaxed and informal.  And an interesting background and sky as well.

A difficult one to print, this last one, being half in shadow and half in sun.  The subjects are clear enough though, which is the important thing.

All printed on Ilford RC Warmtone, for a change.  More to come next Friday.