This is one of my favorite images, ever. This is my grandmother, Grace Chapman, taken in the late 1920's or early 1930's in her hometown of Georgetown, Mississippi.
My grandmother in Georgetown, MS
A couple of years ago I found an old box of all my mom's old family pictures. I was immediately fascinated. I started scanning them and fixing them up in Photoshop. A tedious, yet really rewarding project. Most pictures were no larger than 2"x3"...but when scanned at 9,000 DPI they look amazing. The detail from such a small print really is astonishing. The lesson? Print your pictures! Future generations will be grateful!
Perhaps the most interesting thing to me was how amazing my grandmother was. So beautiful, so fashionable, so lively...she had spunk. Sadly, I only knew her as an old woman. She died in 2002, and while I obviously knew her and loved her, I didn't know her. These pictures opened up an entirely different world. She was a new person. So youthful and elegant...not at all the old fragile lady I had come to know. For the first time in my life I thought of her as my age. It was a rather profound moment.
We so often dismiss old people and try and avoid awkward interactions. If you're lucky enough to have any grandparents left, really get to know them. Ask them questions. Go through old pictures together. Talk. I promise you'll learn something new.
This photo is a part of an ongoing project to scan and 'fix' old photos I find. Click the tab Curated to your left for more. Most of these are old family photos, others I've found in Europe and other thrift shops. Check it out!