I found this picture amongst the cache of pictures in Miss Brown's personal photograph collection.
It is a rare one- this picture.
Not because it is in black and white. (Miss Brown has many other pictures of the same era also in black and white)
Also not because it (probably) features a schoolgirl Miss Brown sitting together with a group of girls all clad in a school uniform of short sleeved blouse and skirt
It is a unique picture because it is a candid one.
And this candid shot had been taken outdoors.
Let's not forget that film was expensive during those days.
As such, many photographs- whether taken in the studio or outdoors- were often shot portraiture style, and with the subject in careful pose.
This picture, on the contrary, is not.
In fact, it is one of the most candid pictures (from that era) in the collection that Miss Brown owns.
In this picture there is no hairdo, no scarf, no bag, no deliberate tilt of the head nor twist of the waist.
Neither is there any specific placement of arms, hands, legs and feet for the optimal angle.
Everything is as it is- a bunch of girls sitting around a table in a kopitiam listening in rapt attention to the one holding conversation.
(I think it is Miss Brown- I can't quite tell)
No one in the group is posed.
We know- because some of them are half slouched in their seats, and at least four of them have their elbows on the table.
Way out of the etiquette line for young girls in those days, I'd say.
The other thing about this picture that amazes me is its timelessness.
This picture might have been taken somewhere around the early 50s, but if the school to which these school uniforms belong to still exists, then this picture could easily be that of the 2022 year.
Is it not so?
Take a group of girls in the same hairstyles and the same uniforms,, find a kopitiam with round tables and this sort of kopitiam chairs, place the same kind of bowls and plates on the table, and you'll have (more or less) the same picture.
After all, coffee shops like these are still around.
As are kopitiams with the same kind of chairs and tables too.
I'm not sure for what reason this picture was taken.
I'm not very sure when or who took the picture, either.
It would have been lovely if I could ask Miss Brown.
But she's reticent when it comes to mention about her secondary school days and all we can do is to venture a bit of guess.
Still, it's enough that we have the picture.
Especially since it is a very, very precious one.