softness of old photos
Tag Archives: vintage
I saw someone asking about if vampires could have their picture taken and IIRC in Merrick Louis had a photograph of Claudia so it seems like vampires can have their picture taken right?
Yes, that’s in Merrick. It seems like Ricean vampires can be captured with photography, film, and video.
[^X not quite the right Claudia, but this is an evocative photo titled Livia by Frederick Sommer.]
Louis tells David about it:
“But the photographs, the daguerreotypes, that’s what she wanted, the real image of herself on glass…. But then years later, when we reached Paris, in those lovely nights before we ever happened upon the Théâtre des Vampires and the monsters who would destroy her, she found that the magic pictures could be taken at night, with artificial light!“
He seemed to be reliving the experience painfully, I remained quiet.
“You can’t imagine her excitement. She had seen an exhibit by the famous photographer Nadar of pictures from the Paris catacombs. Pictures of cartloads of human bones. Nadar was quite the man, as I’m sure you know. She was thrilled by the pictures. She went to his studio, by special appointment, in the evening, and there this picture was made."
He came towards me.
"It’s a dim picture. It took an age for all the mirrors and the artificial lamps to do their work. And Claudia stood still for so long, well, only a vampire child might have worked such a trick. But she was very pleased with it. She kept it on her dressing table in the Hotel Saint-Gabriel, the last place that we ever called our home. We had such lovely rooms there. It was near to the Opera. I don’t think she ever unpacked the painted portraits. It was this that mattered to her. I’d actually thought she would come to be happy in Paris. Maybe she would have been … But there wasn’t time. This little picture, she felt it was only the beginning, and planned to return to Nadar with an even lovelier dress.”
Do you think Marius was jelous when Armand was hooking up with that english lord? Because I think he was, which is curious because he didn’t have a problem with him fooling around with the half of Venice
Marius is one of our more Problematic™
characters in canon, so take every discussion about him and his treatment of Armand/Amadeo with a huge truckload of salt and patience, bc there are some strong opinions out there.
Marius knew about Armand (known then as “Amadeo”) and Lord Harlech. He might have been jealous, but didn’t say so in TVA, only that he was worried for Amadeo’s safety:
“He has quite the reputation, your English lord, slamming down his knife on the board in any tavern he chooses. Do you have to consort with common murderers? You have a nonpareil here when it comes to those who take life.”
@auburnandamberangel, @sheepskeleton, @amadeo-child-of-the-renaissance, @faceofabotticelliangel, @annabellioncourt, @vraik, and @anton-mordrid would all probably have better answers for this… anyone is invited to reblog/comment and add their thoughts.
The main difference I see is that Marius gave Amadeo the autonomy and independence to make his own choices in this regard, and Amadeo was more rebelling against Marius in his fling w/ Lord Harlech than furthering his sexcapades education. It turned out that LH was bonkers, got all weird and overly possessive and wanted to kidnap Amadeo… it was a bad breakup.
[X, @cloudsinvenice said: I’m thinking Armand when he fights Lord Harlech, personally.]
There’s some debate about why Marius sent Amadeo around for all those sexual escapades and I always read it as part of Marius’ full-rounded education deal that he wanted Amadeo to have; to have experienced all the good things in life that can be humanly experienced, and to show him that physical intimacy doesn’t have to be the horrible experience it was when Amadeo was kept in the brothels. Not necessarily the best cure for a sexually abused child/teenager but Marius was probably thinking of it as exposure therapy:
Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy used to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety and/or distress. Procedurally it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm in rodent work.
heartisamusclethesizeofyourfist:
This is a study in the power of the gaze. Who is really observing whom? Is it creepy Santa spying on a little girl? Is it the girl with her materialistic lust in her eyes? Or is the doll the true observer, shaming the others by her awareness that they can each only find fulfillment in the control and possession of others’ emotions?
So this is totally Claudia – amirite, @i-want-my-iwtv?
^Claudia would approve of all of this.
Nude with Trumpet, taken by Fred Holland Day (1897).
Lily Elsie, c. 1904.
“She laughed. Or rather she started to laugh, and she stopped as if she
weren’t allowed to laugh. What a gay and interesting little get-together
this was going to be!…
The dark-eyed female
was enthralled. I winked at her. She would have been gorgeous if
someone had thrown her into a waterfall and held her there for half an
hour and I told her so silently.” – Lestat re: Eleni, The Vampire Lestat
Avenue de l’Opéra. Paris 1875s. Charles Marville
A vintage looking photo of me.
I-want-my-IWTV 