Matching boys from Dickson City, PA
By: usermattw
What it is:
Photo (approx. 3.3 x 5.3 inches) inserted into a cardboard frame/folder.
What I know about it:
Photographer is Lackawanna Studio of Dickson City, Pennsylvania. Otherwise undated and unidentified.
Comments:
I somehow don’t think these boys are twins, but I would be surprised if they weren’t at least brothers. I’m bummed by the mark on the left boy’s face. It is, of course, some sort of damage to the photo, not an actual birthmark or anything. As tempting as it is to try to remove it, photo restoration is not part of my skill set, and I know I would just make it worse. It’s also not part of my skill set to erase the blemish in Photoshop. Even if I could, I prefer to present the photos “as is”, and let any damage be part of the stories of their journeys.
Pics of Then 
I agree, the “patina” only adds to the pictures’ stories.
🙂
Yes, the damage is part of its appeal. I always struggle with preservation issues as I too have no conservation or restoration skills. I want to stop further deterioration but don’t know how, except to keep my photos in acid free dark environments. How do you store yours, Matt?
For the most part, each photo is in it’s own archival-safe plastic sheet protector, then stored in boxes for convenience. The sheet protectors aren’t the most efficient since they are designed for sheets of paper, not smaller photos, but they are cheap enough in bulk at the office supply store that I don’t mind. (When I’ve looked at plastic photo protectors, they are always so expensive.) Some are in the albums they came in, a couple of bags of loose shapshots came that way and are still like that, and a few of the plastic sheet protectors are in 3-ring binders instead of boxes. I am NOT saying this is how is should be done, and I wouldn’t be surprised if an expert gave a bunch of different reasons why it’s bad, but to answer your question that’s how I’ve been doing it.