A person with one single photo to remember them by. That's tough to wrap one's mind around in this day of Selfies Gone Wild, isn't it?
The gentleman in this portrait is the maternal grandfather of the same client whose father I shared with you earlier. It's a marvelous photo, small (2x3 inches maybe) but very well done back in the 1920's. (Which makes it 90 years old or so.) The restoration was going to be cleanup of the odd scratches and specks with a wee bit of tonal adjustment while prepping it for enlargement.
I've really come to appreciate these photos for the skill of the photographers who had to get it right in the days when film, large equipment and cumbersome processing were required. We've grown so soft in this day of digital photography where we can take countless photos in the blink of an eye and delete them without a penny leaving our pockets. And they can be distributed far and wide with no expense at all (for better or worse).
Back in the day, the portrait was in investment and care was taken that it be treated as the special event it was. It was an occasion to look one's best for and to treat with respect. After all, it may be the only portrait a person ever has taken.
And that is exactly the case with the dignified and handsome gentleman you see above. This is the only photograph my client has of her grandfather, a man she never met. In fact, her own mother never met him.
As Christy tells his story:
My grandfather was a farmer in southern Indiana, along with his five brothers. He worked in the coal mines at night and then farmed all day long. The corn was late coming out the fields in 1927/1928 so he was out harvesting corn by hand in late Dec with his brothers. He came in and told my grandmother he didn't feel well and was going to lie down. He took off his boots, laid in the bed and died two weeks later of pneumonia.
He was just 28 years old.
My grandmother was three months pregnant with my mom when he died. The night of his death, he told her she would have a girl and that he would like to name her. Mary Margaret was born in June of that year. She never met her father, my grandfather. The only picture she has of him is the one you worked on and restored and a copy of his World War I draft card he signed that I got off Ancestry.com.
After he passed, my grandmother remarried and left for Tennessee, raising my mother there. My mom met my father there, his family having been in the south since the late 1700's.
And now, for the restoration...
And do know that photo restoration does not have to be prohibitively expensive. Major repairs can be time consuming but for high quality shots that just need some mild damage repair, you may be surprised to find this work well within your reach. Even more challenging projects can be more affordable than you might expect. And when you are looking at a single, fragile remnant of a life long since passed, isn't it worth preserving while you can?
Have a project you would like me to look at? My email is [email protected]
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