Found Photo Album – Belgium

Two weeks ago I went for a little week-end trip to Brussels. I loved the city, the beer, and its giant flea market at Place du Jeu de Balle.

While there I looked for old record players, books, records, beer glasses, expired photo films, and vintage photographs. For a while now I’d been jealous of HillbillyXX‘s incredible collection of old/vintage found photos. Not only does he have some amazing photos that are much more than simple vernacular photography, he updates his collection almost daily.

I, on the other hand, only updated my collection once every fortnight, since good and affordable photos are hard to come by (I’ve had anything from .50 to 5 euros a photo!). It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a collection of old photo albums in Brussels that I realized that buying in bulk was the only way to satisfy my constant cravings for old photos of unknown/forgotten people.

This particular seller had some 4 or 5 albums, out of which only one had several photos per page while the other ones had one or two photos a page. The guy wanted 50 euros for the album, but I was able to bargain for 25 bucks (I haven’t counted the exact number of photos inside, but I’m pretty sure i got it for less than if I’d bought them individually).

Since I haven’t meticulously examined the photos I cannot say for now if the whole album consists of one single family or if it’s a mix and match of different friends’ and families’ memories. What i do know is that the album itself was manufactured in Brussels, and that each page is labeled with names of places in France (“Toulouse”, “Bordeaux”, etc.). As far as I can tell the placement of each image in the album does not correspond to the label on the page, which leads me to believe that either they were hurriedly rearranged in there or that they simply do not correspond to the album (meaning that they were added to a random album).

I haven’t had time to select my favorite photos, nor to scan them individually, but for the time being I’ve managed to take pictures of each page. Enjoy!