Photos from the 'snelfotograaf'.

Have a look at the two photos below... what is striking about them is the 'caption' at the top, like some sort of advertisement banner. This points to them having been taken at a 'snelfotograaf', or the 'quick photographer'. Roman Kienjet published a book about this practice in 2022 and when I read the reviews about it in the newspapers I realised that I had two of these photos in the family archive (if you can call it that).

Quick explanation of the name... the 'snelfotograaf' was often marketed as something American and offered cheap photos where you supposedly could take the photo yourself. This last part never really happened, but the low pricing was made possible by a process whereby a lot of photos were processed on larger sheets of material which kept the price down. The backgrounds were simple and the banners at the top were added as a promotional thing, making these images instantly recognisable.

With the help of the book mentioned above, I have been able to determine that the second photo has been taken at a photographer who set up shop in Drachten on 14th August 1914, which provides a date before which the photo cannot have been taken. Unfortunately I do not know who the kids on the photo are, but I have two options that might fit. To help out with puzzles like this one, context is sometimes useful. This photo was amongst several photos in an envelope marked 'Tante Oma'. This was Trijntje de Vries, an aunt of my grandmother from her mother's side. Browsing through this part of the family and guessing that a photo like this may have been taken when this photographer and the feature were quite new, perhaps they are the first two children of her sister, Jitsche de Vries: Margaretha Veldstra and Jitze Veldstra. They would have been three and two years old in 1914, so perhaps these two feature on this photo.

Another option is that it could be the eldest two children of Jan Hieminga and Klaaske van der Laan (that was my first guess) but as these would have been seven and six years old in 1914, I don't think that they are on this photo.

As for who the gentlemen on the other photo are, I do not know. The photos is amongst a general set of photos that feature some scenes, locations and faces from the Hieminga family, but that does not offer much of a clue. The photo must have been taken between 15-6-1912 and 25-1-1918 as the American Automatic Photo Cy. was at the address mentioned at the top between those dates. I think that the person on the left may well be Jan Hieminga, but cannot be sure.

More portraits (of kids and others).

Another interesting topic for puzzles are the various old portrait photos that were printed and mounted on cardboard backs. Fortunately, the names and/or dates were often written on these portraits, but not always.

Another photo of two kids, with an elder sister and younger brother. The same two as above? Margaretha Veldstra and Jitze Veldstra could be the topic... but there is a date handwritten on the back: November 1911. It is also in the handwriting of Jan Hieminga, so it is more likely that these are his eldest: Rinschkje Hieminga who was four years old in 1911, and Wiepke Hieminga, who was three years old at the time. The Veldstra kids were obviously younger on the photo shown earlier, which was taken three years or more later.

Things get more interesting with a photo like this:

There is no date on this photo, nor is there a name. So where to begin? I noticed that the lady looks a lot like the person on the far right of this photo:

This photo was amongst those in the envelope marked 'Tante Oma' so perhaps we are looking at an early photo of Trijntje de Vries, or, judging by the similarity between the two ladies on the right, two or more sisters from this family. Most of the photos in this envelope, or found elsewhere but showing this lady, are from later in her life. I do not have a lot of photos showing her in her younger years. As Trijntje never married, perhaps the photo shows one of her sisters? Waling wrote at one time that Trijntje had been engaged for a long time but in the end she never married, mostly because the gentleman in question was not interested in women. So perhaps this is Trijntje with her fiancee, as the couple in the portrait may be engaged to be married, newly married or perhaps brother and sister. And this is where the trail runs cold as I do not have any corroborating evidence to suggest any other names for this couple.

Update: When I was compiling the page about Jetze Veldstra (the photo with all the names is on this page, click the link) I had another look at a photo showing a large part of the De Vries family, including Jetze Veldstra and Jitsche de Vries. Also present on this photo is Trijntje de Vries and 'Gosse v/d Balk, fiancee of Trijntje de Vries'. Looking at that photo and ignoring the moustache, it could be the same gentleman as shown above. So let's conclude that we have a photo of Trijntje de Vries and her fiancee Gosse. Even though I now have a name, I have not been able to find out anything about this person, so he will remain a mystery.

Jan and Klaaske double portrait

The photo below turned up more than once in the collection of prints. It is one of a few photos showing both Jan Hieminga and his wife Klaaske van der Laan, without kids that is and later in life. The interesting thing about it is that the origins appeared to be unclear. The scan of the reverse side shows two lines of text: '31 March 1942' and 'Photo choir-celebration 1935'. This appears to be Jan Hieminga's writing, at least the first line.

A hint in old letters between Bouwe Hieminga and Wiepke Hieminga pointed towards something that I have overlooked: it is a combination of two separate photos that have been combined through some deft darkroom work. This explains the inconsistency in the two lines of text; a photo of both Jan and Klaaske will not have been taken a day before her passing. Also, Jan did not look like this in 1935 as far as I can tell. I have a portrait of him from 1932 and he looks older in the photo above and when compared to a class photo from 1936. The logical conclusion from all this is that a portrait of Jan was taken on 31st March 1942 which was his last day as head of the school. He retired starting 1st April 1942. Sadly, on that same day Klaaske passed away from cancer. Someone came up with the idea to create this composite picture and they use a photo of Klaaske from a choir-celebration in 1935. The print shows retouching work around the shoulders in the center of the photo and around Klaaske's head. This makes sense as you cannot easily dodge the entire background of a photo without any leftover bits. So you need to compensate for that by using a retouching brush.

This photo was produced by Chris Weijer from Heerenveen, as indicated on the bottom-right corner of the print. He had a photo studio on the corner of Nieuwstraat and Lindegracht. His name also turns up on other photos in the collection.