I started the Old Photos Project when I realized how interesting people are in old photos. I started to collect these old photos at thrift stores and flea markets and I began to imagine the story behind these people's lives. I imagined these people as if I knew them, as if they were part of my life in some more real way than simply a two dimensional image in an old photo. I guess what spurred this on was the concept of "the imaginary family". This is when you adopt people by their having or seeming to have more desirable characteristics than your own family. Maybe this is why I have created this mélange of images of people who have no other feature in common than that they are photos that I brought together because I liked them. Except for two that were actually family friends of my grandparents, but who I know nothing else about, these are random images. So when you look at these photos I hope that you come away with a story, an idea, or even begin to see these folks as imaginary friends or family you might like to have had in your life.
I think that I really chose a lot more photos of women than I meant to. I think that I have chosen lots of images of women for several reasons. First, that I had at that time in my life a need for female companionship. I collected these years ago and since I have settled down, I have continued to spend lots of time touching up old b/w photos of my wife's family. Second, I think that I came to understand that women like to pose and like to show off in photos a lot more than men. They wear clothes, and hats and jewelry that make them much more fashionable than men and attractive to men, who aften had the cameras. I also seemed to have gravitated towards pictures of women because I was fascinated by the changes in historic styles of clothing and dress which is apparent by the clothes that you see people wearing in old photos. I was having a hard time with my family at that time in my life and I think that I used this project to throw myself into something that reminded me of family even when I didn't want to think about my own family issues.
Like all things technical, I was informed by my brother that the silver oxide in an old black and white photo was able to be copied and resized until the edges of the silver oxide molecules became apparent. According to what I was told by my older brother, you could see this if you scanned black and white photos and blew them up, however if you did the same to modern color photographs or digital images they would degrade quickly into a pixilated mess. This gave me an idea. Why not scan some old photos and see what happens? To give you an idea of how this worked out, consider that in reality, some of these photos you see in the my collection are about the size of your thumb nail ~ and yet they look great blown up and presented with a backlit screen.
Anyway, that's the story behind the old photos project. The project was meant to be fun and light hearted and for anyone who wanted to fill up their time with frivolity and short stories.
I think that I really chose a lot more photos of women than I meant to. I think that I have chosen lots of images of women for several reasons. First, that I had at that time in my life a need for female companionship. I collected these years ago and since I have settled down, I have continued to spend lots of time touching up old b/w photos of my wife's family. Second, I think that I came to understand that women like to pose and like to show off in photos a lot more than men. They wear clothes, and hats and jewelry that make them much more fashionable than men and attractive to men, who aften had the cameras. I also seemed to have gravitated towards pictures of women because I was fascinated by the changes in historic styles of clothing and dress which is apparent by the clothes that you see people wearing in old photos. I was having a hard time with my family at that time in my life and I think that I used this project to throw myself into something that reminded me of family even when I didn't want to think about my own family issues.
Like all things technical, I was informed by my brother that the silver oxide in an old black and white photo was able to be copied and resized until the edges of the silver oxide molecules became apparent. According to what I was told by my older brother, you could see this if you scanned black and white photos and blew them up, however if you did the same to modern color photographs or digital images they would degrade quickly into a pixilated mess. This gave me an idea. Why not scan some old photos and see what happens? To give you an idea of how this worked out, consider that in reality, some of these photos you see in the my collection are about the size of your thumb nail ~ and yet they look great blown up and presented with a backlit screen.
Anyway, that's the story behind the old photos project. The project was meant to be fun and light hearted and for anyone who wanted to fill up their time with frivolity and short stories.
