Chronicling Memories: Part 1

Over the past year and a half, I’ve sort of taken a break from designing personal work to focus on several projects. The biggest, and perhaps most exciting one for me, is Finally coming together, so I thought I would share. With the help of my grandma, I’ve been going through her collection of old negatives, reprinting ones we don’t have prints for, and cataloging them all.

My great-grandparents circa the early 40′s: a photo of a photo, they took this treasured photo-booth shot to a local photographer to have reprints made. I’m guessing Kinko’s wasn’t around then… I love the framing of the tape to the matboard. Even more, I love the story they tell with their expressions.

Among her collection are negatives of her mother’s. When my grandma and her siblings had their parent’s estate sale, they divided up my great-grandmother’s many photographs. An avid amateur photographer, Great-grandma’s photography chronicles family life from the 1910′s, through Depression-era Nebraskan farm life, weddings/funerals, Christmas gatherings, and family reunions up until the 1970′s. Grandma seems to have ended up with the box of negatives while some of her siblings received only prints. Each envelope has been like opening up a tiny time capsule.

Since most of the negatives are medium format, I’ve been able to take them to a local photography shop to have them all scanned, reprinted, and burned to disk. (I can’t heap enough praise on Photographix for their help, advise, and expertise: if you happen to be in the area and need anything to do with photography, check them out.) I’ll be sharing more of this project over the next few posts as well as some more great images that we found.

Tags | archival, genealogy, Photography