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Topic: Distrestoration - for those with imagination but not many photos (Read 1406 times)
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Gadget
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There are some very lucky people on RC with an amazing collection of early photographs, some with a few and some with none. I fall into the middle category. I have lots from 20th century but only a few precious ones from the 19th.
To make my accounts of my Ancestors more interesting - just text is a wee bit dull - I have done the usual of going around places they lived and taken masses of photos.
But what of these non-imaged Ancestors - what did they look like, what did they wear? I've now come up with a possible solution based on techniques I used in my artworks. I try to get a feel for them in my head and imagine them. Now I'm going to create images about them from that.
When I last did this, I was using chemical/darkroom techniques and it took ages - processing rephotographing etc. With digital photography, scanning and graphics programs, it can be done so much faster.
Here is an example of something I did 10 years ago. It is from a series I did about an old story of a drowning accident circa 1900. The subject of this image was the widow of one of the men. She had lived in an old cottage we then had. I didn't know what she looked like but did some research and imagined her. I then photgraphed someone and processed the resulting film - printing on soft 'art' paper, wetting it and crumpling it, re-photgraphing, painting various bits with developer to get differential development and printing up. This process was repeated a few times. It was part of an exhibition of Creative Women's Photography - Birmingham and touring.
Today, it's easy - why don't you all have a go.
Gadget
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Gadget
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Not just the American, Annie 
Good for you - why not if he looked like him.
Gadget
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Gadget
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Just let the right side of your brain take over and you can imagine anything, Keith 
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Gadget
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But with my approach Russell, you can produce images from before the advent of photography
Get that right side working - the left can speak for itself 
Gadget
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Gadget
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Don't worry about Keith, Russell - he's got far too many photos already - have you seen his website 
Anyway, his right side should be fine as he's left handed.
What he actually said was incorrect, but who am I to critcise him, he said he couldn't remember faces - I wasn't talking about memory, I was talking about imagination
And with all those Scottish problems we've been dealing with, I think all our right sided skills have had to be used tonight
G'night
Gadget
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kerryb
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My problem is not imagining what any of my ancestors looked like, I tend to visualise them when I am researching them anyway, may not be a correct visualisation of them but it is how I see them and as they are all dead, noone can correct me. For instance George Pilbeam, farmer, Sussex, 1851 was fat and bucolic with a bit of a temper.
My problem would be transcribing those images onto something physical. How do you start? How do you choose your medium?
Kerry 
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.ukSearching for my family - Baldwin - Sussex, Middlesex, Cork, Pilbeam - Sussex, Harmer - Sussex, Terry - Surrey, Kent, Rhoades - Lincs, Roffey - Surrey, Traies - Devon & Middlesex & many many more to be found on my website .... www.kerrysfamilyhistory.co.uk |
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ymfoster
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Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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I think you can sometimes go by what the descendants look like, whether the face was round, square or long, nose & ears are also a clue, & some eyes are very sunken.
I am one of the lucky ones & have 3 large albums of my grandmother & gt.g'mother's going back to the mid 1800's, but my husband's side is not as fortunate, but I have made contacts over 20 years or more & have gleaned a few photos of his gt.g'parents & also more of mine, .... so put your ancestor's names on a number of well known sites & get those contacts, photos are so easy to copy now without fear of them being lost.
I have imagined relatives completely wrong through corresponding with them, & then to meet them & be totally surprised
Yvonne
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You may use my restores, acknowledgement appreciated.
Mostly England -
Walne Nfk - Argent Barritt Hammond Sfk - Asprey Comber Cribb Gundrey Higgs Plaw Sewell Sumption Sry - Baldwin Bull Nth - Brumfield Dufty London Wor - Calverley Greenhalgh Lan - Dodson Stainsby NRY - Denison WRY - Whittle Yks - Dormer Mdx - Felmingham Eng - Grecian Nbl - Hayse Mass US - Jenner Ounstead Weeding Ssx - McDonald Skye - Campbell McIndoe McMillan Inv - Window Gls
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Gadget
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I don't think it's accuracy of looks that I was really saying. It's a whole feeling that you might have about them - colours, shapes, textures.
Those photos that some put up that are out of focus or torn or faded might be a start.
Don't be too literal.
Gadget
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dennford
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just resting for a while
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Having chosen nursing as a career Keith's suggestion that it was a woman's way of thinking got me wondering if there is something about the way male/female brains are wired up when it comes to visualisation of things - or is it just that my wires are crossed.
Russell, I did once hear that a womans brain is exacly the same as a mans, it's just that god put them in back to front.
Name not for publication
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Ford, Baines, Dixon, Platts, Peat, Proctor, Rotherforth, Dakin/Daykin, Sales, Beech, Hall, Parkin, Nightingale. ----- Harthill, Waleswood, Woodhouse-mill, Whitwell
South Yorkshire/Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire
Torremocha, Candog, Ramos, Reyes, Rodrigueus
-------Philippines --- Bohol
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Gadget
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I quite like you once Denn
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KatieMacrae.jpg
