An intuitive selection of images extracted from a collection of Real Photo Postcards (RPPCs). David Thomson emphasises details contained within the larger frame of the postcards by cropping into specific areas — a subtle nuance of light, a stranger's gaze, an impending tornado — where the mundane and the extraordinary hold company in equal measure. The images elicit stories of past endeavour and adventure at the beginning of the modern age, with a nobility of spirit persisting amid hardship and hope. RPPCs boomed in popularity in the early twentieth century, above all in North America, where they were collected and used as an affordable way to communicate; many were made by amateurs and stand as unique documents of life in small-town and rural America.