{"id":13462,"date":"2013-06-20T06:23:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T11:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=13462"},"modified":"2019-11-26T06:31:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:31:56","slug":"john-pulls-the-strings-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/06\/20\/john-pulls-the-strings-again\/","title":{"rendered":"John Pulls the Strings Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John-pulls-the-strings-again-det\"<\/a>Here’s another picture similar to last week’s<\/a> where photographer John Capewell<\/strong> inserts himself as part of one of his photographs by triggering his camera’s shutter via the string he is tugging.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m don’t know who the women are to the left of Capewell, but the woman with the serene smile to the left of them is John’s wife Ella<\/strong>. Both John and Ella look fairly young in this photo, and I wonder if they were courting yet to be married. There may be a ring on John’s blurred left hand. It’s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

The gentleman to the far left is John’s brother although I’m not exactly sure which one.<\/p>\n

\"John-pulls-the-strings-again-det2\"<\/a>Here’s a detail portion where of John and the ladies. As I’ve gone through these century old glass negatives, I’ve been struck by Mrs. Capewell.<\/strong> She makes me think of the character in Richard Matheson’s fantasy novel Bid Time Return<\/strong><\/em><\/a> which was turned into the movie Somewhere in Time<\/strong><\/em><\/a> starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve. In the story a modern man becomes obsessed with an actress in an old photograph and wills himself back in time to meet her. Ella may not look like Jane Seymour, but she was pretty and there is something sort of modern looking about her despite the early 20th century clothing. There’s a sly sense of humor about her. She was probably a lot of fun. John Capewell<\/strong> was a lucky man.<\/p>\n

Here is the entire 7 inch by 5 inch glass negative:<\/p>\n

\"John-pulls-the-strings-again\"<\/a>I assume it was shot somewhere in Southern New Jersey possibly Westville which sits on the Delaware River across from the then teeming metropolis of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

About The Capewell Glass Negative Collection<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Capewell Glass Negative<\/strong> Collection<\/strong><\/a> is a series of about 200 5-inch by 7-inch glass negatives shot early in the 20th Century by John Batt Capewell<\/strong> (1878-1951) of Westville, New Jersey.<\/strong> John passed the negatives down to his son Henry who left them in his wife\u2019s possession upon his passing. Henry\u2019s widow didn\u2019t know what to do with them and didn\u2019t particularly want them so she offered them to my Dad who couldn\u2019t turn down anything. Ultimately I wound up with them and thought I would one day have photographic prints struck from them. That didn\u2019t happen, but I came up with the digital workaround of placing the negatives on a lightbox and rephotographing them with a digital camera. The \u201cprocessing\u201d<\/em> was then done on a computer with image editing software. They came out better than I thought they would so I thought I would show them off to the world on this site. Many of these pictures have not been seen in a century, and I\u2019m proud to be presenting them today.<\/p>\n

At first, I did not know who the people were in the photographs. I have a box of ephemera that accompanied the negatives and snagged a few clues from that as far as the Capewell name. I did some research on the internet and had a few false starts and wrong turns, but the readers of these posts have provided a remarkable amount of research and detail. I\u2019m amazed at what people have turned up sifting through public records and such!<\/p>\n

\"DSCN1412-neg\"<\/a>Last: <\/strong>John Pulls the Strings<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another picture similar to last week’s where photographer John Capewell inserts himself as part of one of his photographs by triggering his camera’s shutter via the string he is tugging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1104],"tags":[158,1573,1095,1106,122,3669,118,3676,336,121],"class_list":["post-13462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-capewell-glass-negative-collection","tag-analog","tag-antique-photograph","tag-glass-negative","tag-john-b-capewell","tag-new-jersey","tag-philadelphia","tag-photography","tag-the-capewell-glass-negative-collection","tag-vintage","tag-westville"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-3v8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9733,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/09\/13\/out-of-focus-in-the-yard\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":0},"title":"Out of Focus in the Yard","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if John B Capewell's camera had a viewfinder or any way of telling if his exposure was going to be out of focus. Looks like he had his lens set on a distant focus because the house in the background is nice and sharp while the subjects\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Capewell Glass Negative Collection"","block_context":{"text":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-capewell-glass-negative-collection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1267-neg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1267-neg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1267-neg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1267-neg.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14316,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/09\/05\/on-the-fence\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":1},"title":"On the Fence","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's another group shot photographed in the early twentieth century by John Capewell who has included himself in the picture. He's the second from the left and has rendered himself blurry from the sudden motion of tugging the string that triggers his camera's shutter release. To the left of Capewell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Capewell Glass Negative Collection"","block_context":{"text":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-capewell-glass-negative-collection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/on-the-fence-det-l.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/on-the-fence-det-l.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/on-the-fence-det-l.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10590,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/11\/22\/waiting-for-dinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":2},"title":"Waiting for Dinner","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Those viddles aren't going to fix themselves! This is one of a series of odd, indoor photos that John B. Capewell of Westville, New Jersey took indoors. I'm assuming he's using some sort of flash to expose his glass negative. I'm wondering if he got a sudden urge to test\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Capewell Glass Negative Collection"","block_context":{"text":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-capewell-glass-negative-collection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/waiting-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/waiting-detail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/waiting-detail.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/waiting-detail.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17701,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/11\/13\/the-great-indoors\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":3},"title":"The Great Indoors","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection continues with a great indoor self-portrait of the photographer John Capewell who looks to have been experimenting with flash photography. He's flanked by two ladies -- John's wife Ella on the right and a woman who I'm not sure of on the left. I've posted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/3-in-the-corner-det-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/3-in-the-corner-det-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/3-in-the-corner-det-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15763,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/03\/06\/flowers-by-the-fence\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":4},"title":"Flowers by the Fence","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a photograph of some of the women in John Capewell's life along with what I'm guessing are his two sons. From the left, I'm guessing that John, Jr is seated on the fence, John's mother-in-law, John's wife Ella holding Henry, John's mother Whillie Batt and two of John's sisters.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Capewell Glass Negative Collection"","block_context":{"text":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-capewell-glass-negative-collection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/flowers-by-the-fence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/flowers-by-the-fence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/flowers-by-the-fence.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/flowers-by-the-fence.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9892,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/09\/27\/children-of-the-corn\/","url_meta":{"origin":13462,"position":5},"title":"Children of the Corn","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One of John B. Capewell's brothers ran a farm and corn must have been one of his crops. This is a photograph of John's sons, John, Jr. standing and Henry O. seated on the lodge pole chair. New Jersey is known as the Garden State, and there are a number\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Capewell Glass Negative Collection"","block_context":{"text":"The Capewell Glass Negative Collection","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/the-capewell-glass-negative-collection\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1504-neg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1504-neg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1504-neg.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/DSCN1504-neg.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}