Old photos have a special place in my heart because of the stories they tell. I’ve always enjoyed skulking around ebay or antique stores to look at the small boxes of glass plate negatives or piles of photos from an estate. Some people have made a living with this kind of picking but, I’m into it more for the chance to see another world. I also like breathing new life into the images that would otherwise disappear.
This small batch of cyanotypes are from my mother’s side of the family (Shelley) and were from negatives my cousin Sara sent. Instead of scanning the negatives, which are all odd sizes, I just made prints from them and scanned those in.
I like old photos because it gives me a chance to see another world through the eyes of someone else. I tend to learn a lot from looking at what has already been seen. Having a collection from my family helps connect me to people I’ll only know through childhood memory and stories.