Featured Help with writing on photograph. Location? Signature?

I'm 99.99% sure this is a Marshall Gardiner photograph. There is something written on the photo in the lower right hand corner but I can't read it. I've blown it up with photoshop. I darkened it, lightened it but I still can't read it. What do you think? Thank you.

 

I think that photo is breath-taking.

 

Looks like T or J Larabluer? Larablues?

 

I've been looking at photographs of the Cypress trees with Spanish moss on the canals in North Florida and Georgia. I went back and looked again after seeing the Larablue, possiblity. There is a Lake Blue in Florida. Maybe it's the name of the lake. I'm going to see if I can find something that looks similar.

Gila, thank you, I'm still torn about listing it.

 

The grey moss hanging from the trees would be somewhere in the Southern U.S. ... Louisiana?
Unless that moss grows off trees in other parts of the world?

 

Spanish moss. I agree somewhere in the southeast. Has a bayou feel to it.

 

Bakersgma, I think you nailed! Lake Blue in Florida has Spanish Moss.
Gardiner is known for his photographs of Florida, Bermuda and Nantucket. He followed the tourists. I read that he almost always marked the location of his photographs. I don't know if this was framed like this originally or someone re-framed it because the original mat was stained or foxed.

 

I don't think it is Marshall Gardiner. I think it is his father.

I see W H Gardiner.

Go down to the second paragraph of "Move to the US". He split his time between Michigan and Florida.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Gardiner

 

Thanks clutterdcloset, that's the same article I read. Scroll down to the end of third paragraph and it says that Marshall produced the same type of photographs in Florida, Bermuda and Nantucket. At first, I wasn't sure which one shot this but then I found some other photographs by Marshall that were signed on the board and looked similar.

 

The wiki article says the elder Gardiner signed his photos in pencil. W H Gardiner.

This article claims the son mounted his photos like Nutting and signed under the photo.
"H. Marshall Gardiner's hand-painted photographs are very similar to those by Wallace Nutting and the other leading New England photographers. That is, most are matted, usually on white mat board having a platemark indentation around the image, signed "H. Marshall Gardiner" lower right beneath the image, and titled lower left beneath the image. And most are framed in thinner frames, also in the style of Wallace Nutting."

http://ezinearticles.com/?H-Marshall-Gardiner---Hand-Colored-Photographs&id=5462137

I still see W H Gardiner for a signature on your photo.

 

I think I misunderstood. So you think that is W. H. Gardiner's signature right on the photograph?

 

It's a beautiful picture, but I think it's faded. It's always the red that goes first, and this seems very blue/green.

 

I've played around with photoshop again, magnifying and changing colors and lighting and I'm still not seeing his signature. Does anyone else see Gardiner?

Bob, the photo probably has faded a bit over time. I looked at the details through a loupe and it looks like he only used shades of blue, green and grey. I couldn't pick up any other colors.

 

Yes, I see W H Gardiner. The "W" right side forms the first side of the "H". The "H" follows through and starts the "G".

 

Wow - It's really hard trying to write with that marker. I didn't quite get it, but hopefully it helps you see what I see.

 

Okay, now I see the W.H. and the G. Thank you! I would be lying if I said I see the rest of the Gardiner part, but then again, I could never make out any of it.

 

I also think it's W. H. Gardiner, especially with the enhancements that were done. In looking at signature examples online, the father signed with his intials, but the son seems to always spell out the word "Marshall." And the sig on this photo is not long enough to include that word. Looks like only initials before the last name. For that reason also, I think it's the father.

 

Just because it can be done, here's the picture with a lot of red added:



This is only an approximation because adding color like this applies a very even red cast throughout the image. The original red would have appeared more selectively. The sky would have been bluer, greens would have been greener, but the woody colors would have been more brown, the water would have been richer brown in shade and bluer in sunlight.

 

Thank you. I agree now that I see the first three letters.

 

@moreotherstuff, I must have posted while you were posting your photo. I had a bit of an accident and didn't get back on the boards. I just pulled out my photo grain enhancer from my old darkroom. I only see a tiny bit of brown on the trees closest to the front on the right hand side of the photograph. Possibly on one tree on the left.

I've been searching the internet but I haven't found many photographs for sale by the father.