Wedding photos are not an unusual find in the hunt for vintage photographs. This particular photograph is a bit special. It caught my eye because of the terrific expressions on the faces of the bride and groom, particularly the bride. The bride’s expression is priceless. I interpret her expression in two ways. First, she seems to be quite spunky. She has “personality galore”. Second, she shows a look of satisfaction, as if she is thinking “I finally snared the man I wanted to marry”. The groom also has a flair for the dramatic. He appears scared and uncomfortable. One of his legs is lifted off the floor in an awkward position (flamingo style). Is he using his knee as a platform for the bouquet of flowers that his bride is holding? I am truly uncertain as to the reason he is posed in this manner. Despite the groom’s weird “yoga pose”, I think the photographer did a great job composing this wedding portrait. I admire his ability to capture the vivid facial expressions of this young couple. The photograph was produced by the Pulaski Photo Art Company of Chicago, Illinois. The President/Manager of Pulaski was Max Prusinski (1883-?) and the Secretary of the company was John Prusinski. Interestingly, this studio produced another wedding portrait which can be found in “The Cabinet Card Gallery”. The image can be seen below. At the time I posted this photograph, I noted what an excellent job the photographer did in capturing the bride’s personality. In my description of the image I wrote “She is exhibiting a playful smile and appears to be a vivacious young woman”. The bride in the image below also appears to be quite spunky. It is likely (based on a small sample of two photos) that the photographer (s) from the Pulaski studio strived to spice up wedding portraits by capturing the personalities of the wedding couple.
