Some more recently discovered photographs from my mother’s Latvian archive have come to light. In a previous post I wrote about the little photographs given to my mother as friendship mementos during World War 2 in Latvia. Here are a few more, all from 1944, though slightly different to the previous ones, in that they are real photo postcards (RPPC) - portraits printed onto special heavyweight postcard stock designed to be sent in the post. The portraits have obviously been taken in a studio, which would have been quite common in those days - portraits no 1 and 3 have the studio stamp, the first from Riga and the latter from Lithuania. To our eyes they offer a romanticised, idealised view of femininity with the sitter looking off camera bringing to mind promotional portraits of the Hollywood stars of the era.
The messages express the same sentiments however - they refer to dreams coming true, memories and destiny. The final message sums up the wartime zeitgeist - “Life is beautiful - do not dream. Life is short - enjoy it…..” Seize the day as you never know what the future may hold. I can’t help but wonder what became of Lolā, Termīda and Villī…….