
A Cat Meme Photographer from a Century Ago - ainar-g
http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/09/10/culture/art/cat-meme-photographer-century-ago.html
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codetrotter
I don’t think they qualify as memes to be honest. For a lot of people “meme”
is synonymous with just “funny picture” it seems, but a real meme is something
more than just a funny picture.

I think Wikipedia puts it quite well:

> An internet meme, commonly known as just a meme, is an activity, concept,
> catchphrase, or piece of media that spreads, often as mimicry or for
> humorous purposes, from person to person via the Internet.

The spreading from person to person being the crucial part.

~~~
bachmeier
> a real meme is something more than just a funny picture.

> The spreading from person to person being the crucial part.

The article says:

"They were called postcards, or souvenir cards, and mailing them to friends
and relatives was immensely popular for sharing a gilded, snowy holiday scene
or even a lolcat."

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codetrotter
I was being overly simplistic.

I still think there is a difference between individually forwarding a funny
picture to others, and what a meme is.

In order to be a meme, I should have said that it needs to be adopted and
adapted by a collective of people.

A postcard sent by me to my friends with a cute cat is not a meme. An image
macro that I make and share to a collective group of my friends and them
making variations of it makes the image a meme.

~~~
pixl97
>A postcard sent by me to my friends with a cute cat is not a meme.

And when they send it to others, who send it to others, then it is a meme.

~~~
drdeca
I think only if some of them make modifications or variations on it.

Or, at least, that should be required to make it a central example of the
concept?

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__feda__
"he committed suicide after receiving a cancer diagnosis"

Wow, he sure came to a sad end to his life after spending so much of it making
such whimsical images. I guess the stress of looking after his parents had
ground him down a lot over the years.

Nice pictures though.

~~~
ainar-g
I mean, he was 73 at the time. Having lived a long life, making a small but
noticeable difference in the world, I think he had the full right to say "Ah,
screw it, I'm done." after receiving the diagnosis.

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barking
Doesn't look like those cats were having a good time

~~~
mirimir
True. But at least they were still alive.

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dsego
Yup, there's a stuffed frog collection in my town, made in the early 20th
century. Really bizarre and disgusting. If you have the stomach for it google
“Ferenc Mere”.

~~~
ada1981
The original Pepe meme?

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howard941
Buried a few miles away from my rotten workplace
[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24091730/harry-
whittier-...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24091730/harry-whittier-
frees)

~~~
gm-conspiracy
Do you live in SRQ?

~~~
howard941
Yeah but I work in Pinellas Co

~~~
gm-conspiracy
How is that commute?

~~~
howard941
Soul crushing, dangerous, unsustainable

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GuiA
_> ”He makes exposures at 1/5th of a second, has to junk two-thirds of his
negatives,”_

That’s quite impressive especially given the subjects and shutter speed; if I
get 1/3 of negatives I’m happy with on a 120 roll, it’s a very good day
indeed.

~~~
sizzzzlerz
In his case, motion blur given live subjects would be a common problem,
resulting in trashing two-thirds of the photos. With a modern camera and
sensitive file or sensors, you can shoot at much faster shutter speeds for the
same amount of light. On a given shoot, I may take 250-500 shots of which,
unless I screw up, almost all are technically fine (correct exposure and
focus) but only a handful turn out to be keepers for aesthetic reasons. But
then, I shoot mostly landscapes which tend not to move around too much.

~~~
svachalek
"120 roll" refers to an early 20th century camera technology. I've never
worked with anything near that old but I had the same thought, getting 33%
keepers under the circumstances is pretty amazing.

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ggggtez
>claimed the cats were alive

Yeah I dunno about that. Those legs look pretty bent out of shape...

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rement
I think the only part of the cat that is really the cat is the head. All the
pictures have a darker flat background.

I assume the scene is setup and there is a hole in the background for the cat
to stick it's head through. The photographer can get the cats to look
somewhere and take the picture. It's also possible some of the paws are real
but I also feel they don't quite look right.

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SlowRobotAhead
_“He never married”_

It’s rare to that euphemism used in modern writing. I’m guessing the author
might have just read it in research and copied it.

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tasuki
How is that a euphemism?

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SlowRobotAhead
It's a very classic way to say "he's queer" before it was at all socially
acceptable to talk about it.

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tasuki
Interesting! How would one say that... he never married?

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SlowRobotAhead
Straight and never married? IDK, ladies man, or committed to his work, or
never settled down?

It would be arguing the “social” _he never married_ vs the literal. It’s been
reasonable acceptable to say gay since I was a kid so I only know about the
phase from reading.

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notriddle
Maybe these count as memes, and maybe they don't...

... but they are now! I'm definitely making image macros out of these things!

