Blog

05
Aug

Reflecting on how we would feel if family photos didn’t exist

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There is so much of my grandmother’s life that I’d love to share with the world, an Instagram caption would never be enough. Whether it’s learning more of our Pittsburgh roots or what life was like growing up during the Great Depression, which is something that is not often spoken about. . One of our […]

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03
Aug

The Most Nostalgic and Treasured Family Photos are Usually the Simple Ones

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My mother in England in the late 1980s, photographed by her elder sister, who had moved there from India a few years prior. . I have been privy to the childhoods of my mother, her two sisters and their children through the thousands of photographs in my family’s archive. . A majority of them are […]

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28
Jul

A Single Snapshot Captures a Friendship that Spanned Generations

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Some flashbacks are better than others, especially when they bring back memories of dear friends and family. . Here I am in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Alverno College. I’m on the left, my mom is on the right. One of my mom’s best friends, Sister Andre, is front and center. During her college years at Marquette […]

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24
Jul

Even Though They are Gone, Their Photos Remain with Me

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I had a teary night looking back over family albums. Sadly, so many of my family members are no longer here with me. There are so many stories I wish I’d asked them to recall, to tell me before they were gone. . What was it like escaping the war? What was the secret recipe […]

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18
Jul

A Polaroid Sparks Fun Memories of Growing up in the Bronx

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I just found this Polaroid of my family’s house in the Bronx with my grandmother and my uncle Gypsy on the porch. So many memories here, some of my best. . I was just telling someone about the time we had a cookout in the fenced-in area with a TV facing out of the bottom […]

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06
Jul

Family Photos Remind us that life is beautiful in simple terms

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My wife and son back when he was a real little kid – funny how certain family photos carry a kind of talismanic charge in the context of a family life. . Roland Barthes spoke of the punctum a photograph can carry/evoke. This photo filled with the emotions of those young days in the life […]

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05
Jul

What Questions are you asking your grandparents now that will help you remember them later?

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What do you remember about your grandparents? What are you asking them now (and writing down!) to remember them when they’re gone? . I remember how funny they could be. My grandfather had a joke for everyone he met. He called the grandkids “little monsters,” in the most endearing way. He loved popcorn, peanuts and […]

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03
Jul

This Vintage Snapshot of my matriarchs is elegant and exotic

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My mother would have turned 75 this week. Here she is on the beach in Panama with my grandmother, who we called Omi, when the family was stationed there. . I thought it was so exotic that her school on the Navy base had a pool, where she learned how to swim. I remember watching […]

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26
Jun

Who Else Wants Some Good News about those Boxes of Deteriorating Family Photos?

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | No Comments on Who Else Wants Some Good News about those Boxes of Deteriorating Family Photos?

It’s a unique mix of magic and anxiety. It’s a moment of truth. It’s a feeling unlike any other. It’s an experience called NOSTALGIA. When we discover old family photos, we are given a passport to a place called memory. This experience is powerful – everyone can relate to it. Have you ever opened a closet in your parents’ […]

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19
Jun

Uncovering Family Memories Made During Long Summer Days and Captured on Kodachrome

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This Kodachrome slide was taken by my Father, Jim Bailey in 1963. It shows my sister Kathy Bailey and my brother Steve Bailey in the backyard of the family house in Kent, Ohio, long before I was born. . Our dad studied journalism and photography at Kent State University, and worked as a reporter and […]

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