Vintage Kisses: Photographs That Tell a Love Story

I am a self-confessed geek when it comes to history and I am also a hopeless romantic. I believe in love and I’m most often moved by the emotion that comes pouring out of vintage photographs that I see as a flick through books or browse online. There’s something about old images and the moments that remain frozen in time forever that always attracts my attention. The people, the places and the stories they tell are endlessly intriguing to a mind such as mine.

But, I know I’m not alone. I know I’m not the only one who looks at photographs of long past moments and imagines. You and I imagine the lives of the people in the photos, who they are, where they’ve come from and where their lives are going to.

Images: Left via Art.com | Middle via Buzzfeed | Right via Art of Manliness

So why do we do it? Why do we drift off into reveries and lose ourselves in thoughts when we see couples locked together in moments of tenderness that they thought were private? I think the answer can be found in one word. Hope.

You see love is, and always will be, all about hope. You hope for happiness, years together, plenty of good times and the ability to get through the bad times together. You hope that if you’re parted, you’ll soon be back together and that love will always win the day.

And so the images of couples parting without the knowledge that they’ll be reunited and the photos that capture a longed for moment of reunion give us hope. We hope that love will always triumph, whatever the world throws at us.

There’s something else about these vintage kisses too. In an age of selfies and over-sharing online, they represent something else. They’re unspoiled, unselfish and they were never taken to impress. Unlike the endless images of celebrity couples, apparently caught unawares, these real lovers aren’t looking at the camera. They’re looking at each other.

Because when you’re in love, the rest of the world doesn’t matter and time stands still.

Images: Top Row via Buzzfeed | Second Row Left via Bloglovin | Second Row Right via Elizabeth Anne Designs | Third Row Left via Stylist Magazine | Third Row Right via Huffington Post | Bottom Row Left via Pinterest | Bottom Row Right via Kaboodle