I’m setting the Korean photo albums aside this week to share a look at a very different group of images. These are all black and white portraits, both formal and informal, that I’ve discovered while browsing the open-air flea market at Denio’s in Roseville over the past few years. A handful of these — like the well-dressed couple above — are pictures I’ve shared before; others I found for the first time just last week. But they are always among my favorites because they feel so poignant. I can’t help wondering, how did these portraits end up in a flea market? Who are the people in the pictures and where did their lives take them?

From a studio located on Geary Street in San Francisco

The four mini portraits below were all displayed together in a single frame.

A tiny “cowboy” with his gunbelt and pistol