Saturday, December 12. 2009

from the family vault

Posted by rita in B&W
Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)
a couple of days ago, the fabulous eldivinomarques over from LJ and i got talking about vintage photography and how it looks very much different from what is being produced today. for starters, changing the paper on which the prints themselves are/were produced already is largely responsible for that. of course the old papers were incredible instable with their silver coating and the pictures fade over the years because of that. but the silver also brought out a wonderful translucient quality in the images. something that has been lost ever since.

thus, a couple of years ago, i had started scanning my family's old photo albums in a mood of snatching the fading pictures away from certain silver-death-by-fading. restoring the photos is an awefully slow process. many of them are heavily scratched and have dust spects on them. others are bent right in the middle or just in an overall lousy condition due to mould, age and just wear and tear. some of them are nearly 100 years old.

here are just a few examples of what i have cleaned up so far. some of these pictures are still actually works in process. especially the ones that are still very dusty. those specks will get cleaned away eventually, too.

i don't know his first name, but this stud is my great-great-grandfather, mr trültzsch. look at that very impressive mustache! judging from his age in this picture, i reckon the photo was taken around the turn of the century. quite a pretty boy, eh?

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Comments
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Oh, please, do not say such a thing. I'm just a terrible LJ user.

I specially like the first one because it looks so natural, so far from the usual and more artificial poses.

Each time that I look at these kind of pics I feel as they are frozen pieces of time traped in a piece of paper, as if that time never passed by. Like the 5th pic. It looks as if the elder woman will start walking at any moment and will go back to her house.

Btw, do you know the date of the oldest pic you got?
#1 eldivinomarques on 2009-12-12 19:59 (Reply)
whatever you say, you are still fab! :-)

the oldest konfirmed picture i had was from 1888 ad showed my great-great-grandmother. unfortunately the photo was lost when my nan moved to her new flat ten years ago. and it was such a splendid photograph. actually, it was a daguerrotype. which is why i am even sadder that it got lost. :-( it showed her in her black, embroidered wedding gown. she was quite a magnificant and proud bride.
#1.1 rita on 2009-12-12 20:32 (Reply)
Wow, these are wonderful. I especially love the picture of your great-great-grandfather. Very, very pretty (both the photograph and, I must confess, the man himself :-)
#2 Grayswandir on 2009-12-12 21:29 (Reply)
yupp, he was a stud. :-D i really gotta find out his first name.
#2.1 rita on 2009-12-12 22:02 (Reply)
yep i remember one of them pics you showed me the "before"
amazing work and amazing that you know who those people are. i have stacks of photos here where no one remembers the names anymre :-(
#3 alley on 2009-12-12 22:06 (Reply)
i found it's best when i work on these pictures in sessions of 30 minutes. that's incredibly slow work, but that way i don't get bored or fed up too much.

these are only the people from the family on my mother's side. i am totally ignorant when it comes to my paternal family.
#3.1 rita on 2009-12-12 22:14 (Reply)
These pictures are fabulous. I want to know who I'm looking at! glares You're a clever girl to take the pictures and repair them, though. I have no history of that sort for my family; someday, your children will have a rich treasury to explore.
#4 Subversa on 2009-12-13 09:33 (Reply)
in the first picture on the far right that's my great-grand-mother, johanne. second picture that's my great-grandparents, johanne and paul, with their boys, gotthard and johannes, in front of them. (no clue who the other kids are.) third picture, great-great-grandmother singer (don't know her first name) with gotthard and johannes (my grand-father). fourth picture: my granddad on his first day of school. next there's great-great-grandmother singer again. the sixth picture shows my great-grandfather paul on his day of confirmation. the seventh picture are my great-grandmother johanne's brother paul and his wife lene. and the last picture is my very dishy great-great-grandfather whose first name i also don'T know, but he was johanne's dad and his family name is trültzsch.

ooooof. :-)
#4.1 rita on 2009-12-13 10:57 (Reply)

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