My great-grandfather, Frank Duval, lived to be 94. He died when I was in college. I knew him better than any of my other great-grandparents. I have lots of fond memories of time spent in his home. He was such a good man. Can’t you just see that in his smile?
These first two photos came from negatives. Just like last week, the negatives are wider than my scanner could accommodate so they are cropped a bit. With the negatives were these two test prints (seen below) on very thin paper. When I saw them I felt such a connection with my great-grandmother. I knew that she painted photos with oil paints and it totally makes sense that she did other types of editing, but I have no idea how she fixed Grandpa’s hair. I know how I would fix it using photoshop, but she did this completely by hand somehow. I bet she would have been a photoshop wiz! And now that I have seen her handiwork, I feel less guilty about touching up some of her beautiful portraits to remove dust and scratches.
And here is her final version:
She was so talented!
Happy Thursday, I hope you make a fantastic photo discovery today! If not, I hope you will scan and share a special photo today. xoxo
That’s incredible! I couldn’t even do that with photoshop!! Wonderful photos, all of them, and he does look like a real sweetie pie.
Thank you, Amy! I am super impressed by her editing as well. She was so talented. <3
Excellent!
He does look a very nice man. I love his eyes and smile.
Thank you, Val! He really was wonderful. I’m glad I got to know him.
Wow. She did great work!
Thank you, Ellen! Yes, she was so talented. <3
Simply amazing. My great-grandfather was also a photographer (besides being a coal miner, artist, poet) and did a colorized portrait of my three aunts as children. One of them was the proud owner of the picture and always showed it off and her children now own it.
Thank you, Cathy! Do you have a scan or photo of that special portrait? (I hope so!) <3
Amberly, now you’ve got me searching….I though I had a photo of it but it isn’t attach to any of the girls or to their grandfather. I’m going to have to stalk my cousins’ FB pages.
I hope you find it! <3