These are part of a collection of piano rolls, popular from about 1900 to the late 1930s.
They're designed to be played on a (self-playing) player piano & these particular rolls (word rolls) have the song lyrics printed on the roll itself so a group can sing along to the music.
I wanted to get as much detail as possible because I felt that being able to read the labels was an important part of the success of this photo, so I locked my camera on ISO 50 & the largest possible aperture. I'm still not happy because all the writing isn't legible, but it was either this or a close-up of only a dozen rolls & I much prefer the repeating pattern of this shot.
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I might find this more effective if y ou had one or two rolls with one of them open. As it is, this overwhelms the eye and is a bit busy. Just my opinion.
Fantastic picture. Good subject, and a great way to shoot it. It would not have been nearly as interesting if you had taken a picture of the item itself rather than the pattern of stacked items.
And in 85 years, we've passed from cylinder, to vinyl albums, to 8-track, to cassette, to CD and now the MP3 file. Thanks for reminding us of the "old days". Nice fit into the challenge and I like the almosrandom arrangement.
Wow, that brought back memories. I hope this scores high. I don't think people will understand it. Those are reels for a player piano. We had one as a kid, so I understand the picture.
interesting subject. not dure what these are... player piano music? Cool find and certainly belongs in a time capsule to remind people like me that there was automated music before i-pods, cd's tapes and even records. well done
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