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
