We're two sisters who are craft book publishers and found ourselves in the midst of an avocado grove. We bought this house where we planned to conduct our publishing business and in the deal got 4 acres of avocado trees thrown in. Now we're not only publishers but ranchers as well! This blog is all about avocados and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Sepia Saturday #144 Off With Their Heads!!

This weeks Sepia Saturday involves a photo with a headless man. So Alan suggested we find photos where the head has been cut off.


My mother was the grand master of cutting people's heads off in photographs. So I could have shown lots of examples of her photographic work. But then I remembered an instructional leaflet that our company had published years ago. This is what I've decided to post even though it's really embarrassing.

We've published lots of how to do it books during the years and that always involved doing cover photographs. We usually hired models for the covers. But somehow, this particular time we were in a hurry, the photographer didn't have time to wait, no models were available. I don't remember exactly why, but Barbara, Patty (an employee) and I  had to step in that day and model these lace decorated sweatshirts (yes, believe it or not this was a craze back in the 80s).

None of us wanted to model. We whined and complained about it. Our solution was to:

That's right. We did what these ladies had done:


We just merely chopped off our heads:

This actually turned out to be a big best seller. And remember our trip to China? That's why we were invited to go. We had sold so many of these collars to women who wanted to transform their sweatshirts, that we were awarded a free all-expense trip to China to find the next big craze.

You just never know where chopping off heads will lead!

For more posts along these same lines see Sepia Saturday.

17 comments:

  1. I really like that headless cover. I think it is more successful without the heads.

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  2. There was a time when headless ladies were in fashion in France. And after seeing the guillotine I thought you were going to show us the real thing. But you gave it a nice twist instead for which I am grateful!

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  3. Well, that's using your head! Good job. I remember those sweatshirts, and I probably made at least one.

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  4. It does focus our attention on the lace instead of the faces.

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  5. "How to get ahead by losing your head" or "How I lost my head and went to China". A great tale.

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  6. its really striking and how great was it you got a free trip. Did you ever find the next craze?

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  7. I am always amazed how different bloggers interpret the photo prompt and your post had fascinating links from your mother's photographic "skills", to the historic portraits and to the lace collar models - it ceertainly put the focus on the lace, and we were not distracted by any attractive face above! A very enjoyable read.

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  8. There is a picture going round Facebook of a guillotine with a comment about royals going topless!
    It was a stroke of genius to cut off your heads; the result is very effective.

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  9. I think it was a brilliant idea, as a way to focus on the lace. And a trip to China--sounds like a pretty good deal.

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  10. I remember those lace collars and had a small one that I wore with a dress in the 80s! Can't imagine lace on a sweatshirt though.

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  11. Did You Know That The Guillotine was invented not in France but in my hometown of Halifax , England? {wikipedia} .As the wikipedia page describes ,people in Yorkshire could have their heads chopped off for stealing cloth......which in a roundabout & macabre way ties in with your published photographs!

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  12. That was a very neat solution. Decapitation so that the observer concentrated on the product. It obviously paid off in your case.

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  13. Brilliant! And I like the sweatshirt collars. I do believe I have a relative who would go nuts for this.

    I wish the one time I ended up in a book my head would have been cut off. I was shown showing how to change a flat tire. I thought my boss was only going to shoot my hands so I was smiling at him. The whole picture went into the textbook and I could only imagine what students said when they came to me. I'm sure I was the butt of many jokes. With luck none of these books exist anymore. Your chance for fame was lovely, mine was a nightmare.

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  14. That is one funny story to connect to a photo prompt! It's amazing how every weekend Alan's photo choice inspires such a kaleidoscope of family stories, personal memories, history lessons, AND always the best humor.

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  15. What a great post! And I don't think there's any need to be embarressed. Your leaflet looks great!

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  16. Oddly enough, the white one looks familiar.
    I think my mom wore something like that, back in the days...
    :)~
    HUGZ

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