06/12/2026
"Strike a Pose", Atlantic City, New Jersey - 1897 (colorized)
Photographed near the close of the 19th century, the image captures Atlantic City during its early age as a renowned seaside playground, a place of beach going, boardwalk crowds, ocean air, and public spectacle.
But what also makes this image so wonderfully familiar is the timeless human instinct to strike a pose. Whether it is 1897 or 2026, put a camera in front of people and someone will stand a little taller, turn a little sideways, look off into the distance, demand a better angle or do something dramatic, funny, beautiful, ridiculous, and sometimes all at once.
Long before selfies, beach portraits, influencers, and vacation posts, there was already a kind of camera culture taking shape: people aware of being seen, aware of the moment, aware that the pose itself, like them, might become a memory, the memory.
In that sense, we're not so different from this subject in the surf. We simply have more cameras now, more chances, more audiences, more need and more opportunities to look graceful or foolish or both.
