The Balcarek Family

[Elliven]

I am asking for a miracle again!  Can anybody please restore this photograph of a tragic Silesian Family to a presentable condition.  At the time of the First World War, Silesia was in Germany but with a heavy ethnic Polish majority of people.

In this photo, taken in 1915, Pawel Balcarek was in the Imperial German Army he was killed in action very shortly after it was taken.  His son Wilhelm (the baby on his mother's knee) grew up to be a Polish airman fighting against the Germans in WW2 as Silesia was then in Poland.  He was killed in 1944 during a supply drop to the Polish resistance in Warsaw.

I would like to write a tribute story and pass it, and the restored picture to the descendents of the people in it.  Many thanks.

[japeflakes]

As a starter: Much better ones should appear

[Wiggy]

Hi Neville,

Is there any possibility of scanning this photo at 300dpi?  Not sure but my computer is reading it at 96 dpi at the moment.      

It is very damaged as you have said, and very tricky to zoom right in and do repairs without losing the sense of the face/picture.     You've done well JF.

It is surely a sad story and one worth telling and remembering.   

Wiggy

This is what we are seeing - after I have done some work on it.   Very tricky.

[Wiggy]

This is not good I know.  It is a slight improvement maybe.  (Can't do more - eyes are objecting.)

[goldie61]

Wiggy, do you mind if I use one of your great restors, just to put it through my photo software which I think should be able to give it a bit more 'depth'?
You will have done all the hard work!

I know some people don't like somebody else using their restors.
Thought I'd ask you first, rather than step on your toes. 

[Wiggy]

I do appreciate you asking - tis true!

Yes, you may use it.  I couldn't do better - very tiring on the eyes at such a low resolution.  Poor Mum has a very mucked up face.

I will be interested to see the result.

[jim1]

Before you write your story you need to know this isn't 1915.
I'm sorry to say this was taken in the early 1890's.
The woman has a kick-up sleeve or possibly an early style
Gigot sleeve.
They were popular up to around 1898 never to be seen again.
In 1915 women dressed completely differently to this even in Poland.

[Wiggy]

Must say I wondered about those sleeves, Jim. 

[Elliven]

To everyone who has responded, I  am very grateful for your efforts and I am sorry that this picture is the only one that I could find so there is no chance of a better one.

To jim1 - you have really thrown me!  The soldier in the picture would have been a teenager at best, in the 1890s and the two children would not have been born!  I accept your comments about the dress but I cannot explain them.  The family were not well to do and so it is possible that she dug that dress out from her grandmother's trunk - just for the photograph as her husband was not home often or for long periods.

Have you also noticed that they both look a bit old to have two such small children?