Restoring an old family photo from New Iberia, Louisiana (dial-up warning!) :-D
Last edited Mon Apr 4, 2016, 03:55 AM - Edit history (9)
On a recent visit to see my mother, I came across an old photo of my great-grandparents' family posing on the porch of their house on Saint Peter street in New Iberia. The occasion for this photo was, i imagine, to commemorate the snow that had just fallen, which surely must have been an unusual occurrence. (Since posting this, I've found out that it was taken after the snow storm of 1899.)
As you can see, the photo is in bad shape:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
It's looking a lot better now, but still isn't finished.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
It was pretty badly damaged:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
I had to do some reconstruction of missing parts:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
There were hundreds of scratches to remove:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
[IMG]
[/IMG]
This tadpole-shaped stain had to go:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Two faces had to be reconstructed as well-the little girl's on the left, and the woman's on the right.
I copied the undamaged half of each face and flipped it over.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
[IMG]
[/IMG]
The man in the picture is my great grandfather. He was the mayor of New Iberia. This photo was taken shortly before he died, in 1908:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
My great grandparents' graves in the old St Peter's Cemetery in New Iberia:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
St. Peter's is a cool, eerily beautiful old southern cemetery.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Another shot of the house:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
My mother and I went on a sort of pilgrimage to New Iberia and Avery Island to visit her old haunts. Sadly, the house in New Iberia is no longer there.
What it used to look like:
[IMG]
[/IMG]
The bayou Teche, not far away, would sometimes overflow its banks and flood the area.
Same spot, same angle today: 
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Thank you for indulging me with all of this family stuff. There's one last picture I'd like to share. It was taken some twenty years later than the photo I restored, on the porch of that same house. The girl on the left is my mother, with her cousins and Aunt. 
I like this photo very much.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
= new reply since forum marked as read
While visiting my mother, I found boxes full of wonderful old family photos, most of which I hadn't ever seen. It was a revelation.
I really enjoyed them, thanks for sharing! 
I'm glad you enjoyed them.
What a joy to see such a grand house when it was new. What a happy family!
I'm from New Orleans originally and share your love of the past and tight family ties. I think your aunt is reading the Sunday paper comics (which we used to call "the funnies"
to children dressed in Sunday clothes. Reading the funnies to the kids in the family was often a family ritual. For kids whose families weren't so indulgent, there was a radio show, "Uncle Bob (?) Reads the Funnies," which encouraged all the children to gather round the radio and turn the pages while he read.
I am amazed that your family had such warm clothing available to wear! Perhaps they occasonally traveled north?
I am old enough (late 1940s and early 50s) that I remember my family's Model A Ford and the ice truck that delivered ice blocks to the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Blanc (prounounced "Blanh" - French) across the street, who still had an ice box instead of a refrigerator. Mule-drawn fruit and vegetable wagons still regularly traveled in front of our house ("Water-mel-LUNS! Red-to-da-rind!" No problem with asking politely for a free sample - the gentleman with the wagon was happy to "plug" a watermelon for you! On my last visit back (now in Colorado well over 40 years), I saw that the cement water trough, provided for the horses and mules by the ASPCA (there was an inscription on the marble above) and long fallen out of use, had been turned into a memorial to those faithful and long-laboring animals. That touched me deeply: Love and respect for the past, a place that we will all someday live.
Thanks again. I can almost hear the sound of the birds singing in the cemetery, of the feet on wooden steps, and of the horse's hooves on the street.
I had heard them spoken of often growing up, but hadn't ever been there until recently. After having gone through many old photos with my mother in Houston, I decided that it was high time that we make a pilgrimage together to her childhood home. The trip was a fascinating and rewarding experience, one that I'm very happy to have made.
Thank you for your kind comments and interesting recollections. They are much appreciated.
I can't resist posting a couple of other photos here.
This one, of my mother and another one of her cousins, was taken on the steps of the same house in New Iberia.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Here she is again with that same cousin, some years later, in front of my grandmother's house in Houston.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
So sweet, so beautiful! You were very dear to take the time to share them with me.
Ah, the sweet smell of oleander in the spring, and the night blooming jasmin in summer. Sliding down the thick green clover on the levee, on a piece of cardboard: Southern sledding! The magnolias in bloom, and the azaleas!
If I can ever figure out how to upload some pictures, I will send you some of mine, taken before Katrina, on a visit. I have one I know you would like: My brother and I had gone downtown, to the river, to see some of the many changes since my prior visit. I caught a picture of what has to be the coolest job on the planet: The guy playing the steam calliope on the top of a paddleboat, with puffs of steam flying all around - "Go down to th' levee - I said, to the levee! . . . Waitin' for the' Robert E. Lee!" Songs now almost forgotten.
Thanks for the evocative descriptions....
The picture of the steam calliope player on the paddleboat sounds wonderful.
We have a cache of old photos that belonged to my great-aunt (one of the girls on the porch in the restored photo). Many of them are from the 19th century. Alas, not even my mother can identify the people in them. It would take quite some researching to find out.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Some photos do have clues written on the back. This one is from 1871. These people were French-speaking Broussards and Gonsoulins.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
and found that there were two big snow storms at the time. One was in 1895 and the other in 1899. Based on what I know about the ages of the kids in that picture, it must date from the second storm of 1899.
I also found out from a historian living on Avery Island that the picture I posted of the house during a flood was taken during the great Mississippi flood of 1927.
The shaded area shows the extent of the flooding. New Iberia circled in red
[IMG]
[/IMG]
Now you want to work on a bunch of mine? thanks! Nice to hear from you.
You have a bunch of photos that need restoring? It would almost have to be a full time job!
I can imagine that there are restoration problems much more challenging than the ones I dealt with in my photo. For example, in mine, the reconstruction of missing sections was made easier by the fact that the house was photographed practically head on, and thus didn't require much correction of perspective when copied parts were pasted over damaged areas. The same for the faces I had to fix. Both of them were looking directly at the camera, which meant that both halves of each face were symmetrical. I could simply copy the undamaged half and invert it in mirror fashion to form the whole face. This wouldn't be possible, of course, if the head were turned one way or the other. Also, the people in mine are only a small part of the picture.
I am curious though, what sort of restoration issues do you have with your photos? Care to show me one? 
Mainly, it's that they're pretty old, 60+ years, and have just been sitting in a box pretty much. Some of them have gotten kind of crinkled up. I did have some of my favorites worked on a while ago, but I've got a bunch of little snapshot-sized ones that are faded, cracked, just kind of messed up. Sometime when I'm not in the midst of major house renovation, I'll get them out and scan a few.
I've posted these before, but I always like to bring them out again for a look. My dad took the pictures of us kids and developed them in his darkroom.
These are my older brothers:
This is my brother Kenny, who died in a hunting accident when I was 7.
My brother Marvin (he's 72 now)
And here's little Blue_in_AK
These are my grandparents on my mother's side, Ross and Pearl
Last edited Sun Apr 28, 2013, 07:48 PM - Edit history (1)
I recall hearing my mother say that she had been told of ancestors coming from France to Louisiana directly. It would be fun to look into.
You and I may be distantly related!
I had been working on a similar project of old photos about a year and a half ago but it keeps getting put on the back burner for one reason or another... You've inspired me to fire up Photoshop and resume that work!
This is actually one of the few "serious" Photoshop projects I've undertaken in a while. I'm usually up to some sort of mischief doing political photo-montages.
This is what undoubtedly awaits me.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
are Tea-Bag Republicans.
