About Broken Photos

For 20+ years, I have made my living as a photographer, graphic & web designer, and marketing nerd. Spent some time as an Art Director at an Ad Agency, expanded my creative skills, and learned how to develop marketing platforms and branding for future success. Most of it was an absolute blast, but I eventually decided the corporate world (i.e., pointless meetings) wasn’t for me. I had to try to make it on my own. With a great deal of luck and some real hustle, I have been fortunate to stay working for well over a decade.

When my beautiful mom passed away in July of 2018, my wife and kids had the arduous task of going through everything she had saved and collected over the years. As we began to organize things, we started to notice a trend. Scattered in various places through nearly every room of the house were photographs. Hundreds of them, in every size, format, and condition. There were newspaper articles and press clippings that ran as far back as the 1920s and 30s.

Most of the photos were packed tightly in old shoe boxes and held together with a ribbon. Numerous yellowed manila folders jammed full of photos were held together with dry rubber bands stretched taught, and ready to break at the first touch. Multiple albums tucked into the back of spare closets and unused dressers, many with photos placed between the pages seeming to be in wait for inclusion into this book of memories. So many photos.

Many of these gems were the Instamatic snapshots of our immediate family that spanned the 1970s through the 2000s. In an old chest of drawers, we found an old hat box full of 2″ slides highlighting family vacations in the 1960s to adventurous places like Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite.

Also found an old hat box filled with antique prints of my mother’s family from as early as 1902. I recognized no one. Many were marked with names of people I heard said countless times in the kitchen, at a dinner, or during any social gathering that warranted the telling of stories. Their faces were utterly unknown to me, but I certainly knew the names.

We also discovered a heartwarming stack of envelopes containing hand-written letters between my grandmother and grandfather years before their marriage. Reading about their daily life, their travels, and their steadfast affection for one another connected me to them in a way I never expected. They were just like us.

"hey... I do pictures. I can fix these."

Many of these gems were the Instamatic snapshots of our immediate family that spanned the 1970s through the 2000s. ages were damaged in one way or another. Some were either faded, stuck to each other, scratched, or torn into pieces. Due to poor image storage over the years, most of the damage to the photos was caused by water or excess humidity. The water damage caused large amounts of mold to appear all over the images and was degrading the physical elements of the photograph. They were falling apart.

Over the next few months, whenever I had any downtime, I would scan a few, clean them up, and get back to work. I knew it was going to be a long-term project. It might even take a couple of years.

Then there was Covid.

Within a few months, many of my clients put me on hold. I went from working 60 hours a week to less than 20. I wasn’t about to sit around, watch movies or play video games during the lockdown. I pulled the three huge plastic boxes from my closet and started scanning, rebuilding, and retouching.

It wasn’t until I was about halfway through the first box and started sharing some of these retouches with family and friends that it hit me. In the 20+ years, I have been showing proofs and photographs, I have never had anyone show unrestrained emotion from seeing anything I have done in the marketing world. Sure, there were the occasional “ooos” and the “aahhs” when showing a new project or ad campaign, but nothing like a purely emotional and sometimes physical reaction.

This work I was doing in my downtime affected people. It affected me. I not only loved the challenge of the rework but enjoyed learning something about the image or the person in the photo. The stories are what bring meaning to these old images. It’s not just a picture. It’s a memory, a part of the past that wasn’t fully realized until they saw the finished image. Saving and restoring these old pics let me be a part of that.

I spent years taking photos, designing & creating advertising vehicles for clients to help them sell widget X, Y, or Z. I want to use that same skillset to help people reclaim their old photos, tell their family stories, and help preserve their history for their family and the future.

Miss ya mom. As always, you have set me down the path I needed to take.

Too Long; Didn’t Read.

Upon discovering boxes of old photographs and documents after my mom passed away in 2018, I had a shift in perspective. A 20-year career in marketing & graphic design was great fun, but restoring and repairing old photos and documents was a challenge, and the stories behind them all offered meaning. Broken Photos is the result.