Photography Challenge: We Open With Clotheslines
Monday, June 6, 2011 at 9:56PM Tweet Update (6/6/11):
My-West posted "We Open with Clotheslines" as our inaugural post last January. Since then, readers have sent us a number of great images of clotheslines and we thought it was time to share them. If you have a favorite image send it to info@my-west.com, or upload it to the My-West Photography Challenge Pool on Flickr.
Slipping between sheets that have been blown dry by a sage filled breeze ranks up there with tomatoes fresh off the vine and hand knitted socks. Sure the dryer is available and less work, but why would you deny yourself the pleasure? Post your memories of clothes drying on the line or send us your favorite picture.
Eyepopping Clothesline and Poppies, Tuscarora, Nevada c. 2005. Thanks to Merritt Stites.
Claire playing house in the Grasshopper Valley, Montana c. 1937.
The next three pictures were taken by Cora Marchesseault in the early 1960s. She was interested in the work women do around the ranch.
Birch Creek, Montana, circa 1961. Hope the grass holds out!
Grasshopper Valley, Montana, circa 1959. A blustery day.
Polaris, Montana, circa 1965. The day after Christmas!
This colorful photo is from Merritt Stites. From the artist's colony, Tuscarora, Nevada, circa 2005.
Salt Lake City, 1918 (2001 Utah State Historical Society. All rights reserved.)
Lee Greene Richards, Utah, c. 1936. Image courtesy of Diane and Sam Stewart.
Waldo Midgely, Utah, 1930s. Image courtesy of Diane and Sam Stewart.
Library of Congress image, Houston, Texas.
Library of Congress.
Hard Winter by George Handrahan. Image courtesy of the artist.
Monday's Wash by Howard Kearns. Image courtesy of Williams Fine Art.
Painting by Heidi Darley. Sent to us by Susan Horne
Washing Line. Courtesy of Gary Ernest Smith
Painting by Stephanie Deer. Sent to us by Stephanie Deer.
Taos County, NM. Credit: Library of Congress
Clotheslines, My-West.com, Photography | in Clotheslines
Reader Comments (3)
Great post! Brings back old memories of running through the sheets on the clotheslines at my aunt's house in Montpelier Idaho.
Bloomers on a clothesline! Almost as good as a Sears Catalog!
Thoughts on my painting... “Hard Winter, Snowville, UT” reminds me of my own childhood. The painting is one of my all-time favorites. If asked, “What is the subject of this painting?” you might reply, “The house, the clothesline, the snow or the old buildings,” and you would be partly right. The "subject" is unseen, yet you can see evidence of it by objects in the painting. The family that lives in the house and their difficult lifestyle is its subject. This painting tells their story - these people live in isolation (depicted by the empty snow field at the top, the telephone poles, the lonely road) and hardship (depicted by the old buildings in disrepair, the clothes freeze-drying on the line and the lack of anything modern). Whether by choice, or out of necessity, they are holdouts against the comforts that most of us take for granted.