Mending Family Albums
•A Minute Part of Reality•
‘The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.’
Henri Cartier-Bresson
from Czuba Family Album (enlarge)
Decaying Album Pages (enlarge)
I recently finished a commission to reconstruct a deteriorating family photo album/scrapbook. The earliest photo was dated 1936. The photographs were well preserved considering their age. The album pages, however, were disintegrating in your hands.
Leather cover in progress. (enlarge)
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The cover needed minor repairs. I was relieved to see how well the leather and embossed images cleaned up with a good leather conditioner.
Book Press (enlarge)
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There are over 400 photographs on 61 pages that had to be flattened, repaired, catalogued and remounted with archival materials. Tedious work made interesting by imagining the lives reflected from a time before my birth.
Part two of this project includes scanning and printing the finished pages to make duplicates of the final album so that additional family members can have a copy of this family history.
Wash Day (enlarge)
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‘I don’t just look at the thing itself or at the reality itself; I look around the edges for those little askew moments – kind of like what makes up our lives – those slightly awkward, lovely moments.”
― Keith Carter
‘See the Specs?’ (enlarge)
This photo of lovers on a beach occupied my imagination the most; a beautifully candid and tender moment with the note: ‘Pleasure at the mountains, April 1944.’
Thad (enlarge)
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With memorable (even enviable) names like Thaddeus, Rose, Chester, Stella, Betty, Pop, Lou and Lois; the first name is all that was needed. It is a family album, after all. To the right is Thad, the person at the center of this particular circumference of family members. I noticed that his sweet, chubby cheeks stayed with him throughout high school, college (Ohio State University), and WWI.
Boats Passing On the Lake (enlarge)
A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you, the less you know.’
.― Diane Arbus
(90 sec video, music by The Hello Strangers)
‘It is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is the future they are innocent of. Fifty years on we look at them with the godly knowledge of how they turned out after all – who they married, the date of their death – with no thought for who will one day be holding photographs of us.
― Ian McEwan, Black Dogs
Mending Family Albums
Do you have a family album or scrapbook that needs repair or reconstruction?
Please contact me by phone 717.658.2204 or email khigby@mountainteastudios.com
“I have loved watching Kristy go through the archiving process with my family’s photo album. She’s accommodating and had some options. We ended up doing what is right for my family, and now we’ll be able to preserve these memories for decades to come.” – Holly Czuba (Client)
“‘You did a fantastic job with this photo restoration project; a spectacular project, well presented.” – John Link
“Cool project and business helping to preserve those moments for the next generations…”- Louanne Laroche
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The Hello Strangers included a beautiful rendition of the classic song, Que Sera, Sera on their self-titled album. The whole album is just stunning and a favorite in the studio.
