Unknown Soldier c. 1950 (Restoration & Repair)

Some may not know but Bruce, along with his life long pursuit in photography, has professional & personal experience steeped in commercial graphic design, digital image repair & enhancement. A while ago, I asked Bruce if he thought Photo Restoration could ever be part of his photographic journey, at the time he wasn’t sure. During our conversations, Bruce wasn’t sure he could create work he felt was in-line with his current creative practice & with his ‘Why’ - Curate+Inspire+Transform. My interest was certainly peeked & I continued to look into it. After a short while & a few different conversations with me, Bruce did say photo restoration would in-fact dove-tail nicely with his photography. Bruce began to see restoration as a way to improve on his current craft & practice by connecting him with photographic techniques from the past. Supporting my interest in it, Bruce also began teaching me how to do digital photo repair. We picked up old photographs at flea markets, antique shops, wherever really, to practice on. We both enjoy delving into the past through these photographs. Bruce really connected with studying faces, postures, framing, lighting & exposure techniques from the various time periods captured in the photos. When he dove into coloring old photos, he found excitement in finding the right tones & color palettes from various periods in time needed to bring the photo into color. We like to find photos, ones that have a bit (sometimes a lot) of damage to challenge our skills & eye for detail. Bruce & I both like to stay as true to the original time period of the photo as possible. It's so satisfying for us to correct any fading, repairing any damage like scratches or rips, fixing colour & tone, to bring these photos back to their original - or almost original - state. This is an old photograph we purchased, along with a handful of others, from @barnfull_o_goodies in Morrisburg to restore. It’s a fascinating process & it is amazing to save these moments of history. We are so happy with the end result of this restoration. Hope you enjoy it too.