Gregarious images, the ability to instantly connect, along with visual stimulus have played integral parts in helping us all get through 2020 in one way or another. That resolutely dry humour us Brits are famed for across the globe, has been forthcoming in – and often relied on via – those thoroughly modern mediums of memes. Conveyed with much gusto, care of fleetingly interactive tech platforms like Tik Tok and Snapchat. So as to take our minds off the emotionally-challenging here and now. And then and there.
Photography (in terms of the capturing our real world around us) has also undergone something akin to a rennaisance too. With more people exploring and rejoicing in what they discover no more than a stone’s throw from their homes for great swathes of this year. All of us captive audiences to a curious and to some people, almost alien environment found on the other side of our smartphones and front doors.
The over-riding urge to visually document has rarely been greater.
But, as well as framing and sealing the past 12 months in various graphical elements both traditional and contemporary, here at DT we have witnessed a near crescendo of interest in clients seeking us out to provide digital photo restoration solutions. Images of yore. Familiar times gone by.
The ‘old’ normal.
Lockdown Leisure-time Prompts More Digital Photo Restoration Reminders
Lockdowns, slowdowns and the less 2020-specific freeing up a lot of people’s time, has resulted in lofts been raided and wardrobes decluttered. And with it, the inevitable revealing of personal images. Perhaps long-forgotten examples which have remained out of both sight and mind, until of late.
Always far more pleasant than various other laborious chores which you’d put off for years, going through old pictures – with an accompanying pot of tea and slice of cake – has been cathartic for many people.
Privy to an intoxicating blend of melancholy, whimsical and downright amusing, DT has had the privilege of digitally restoring countless original photographs during this strange year that continues to play out. We also know that as Christmas fast approaches – and Lockdown: Part II endures – that even more of you will reach out to us to assist and make good.
Out With the Old, In With the New Old: Photo Retouching 2020 Style
Whilst the evenings are drawing out before us again, we’re all headed long into the night. Brushed by a chill wind that blows no good. Originating not so much from the gulf airstream we hear so much about, but rather the Covid-19 one which still hangs unseen. In the atmosphere, and all around us.
As the UK once more batons down its hatches in dutiful response to lockdown 2.0 measures being introduced, our transient thoughts once again turn to a smorgasbord of things which concern us. Or indeed, touch on all our lives.
That palpable sense of anticipation.
Anticipation of how we all get through another justifiable and much-needed, yet seeming infringement on our collective freedoms.
Anticipation of what happens next.
Once December hones into view on a still distant horizon. Exit strategies and Christmas resembling the last one and the Whams before it, high on everyone’s agenda.
With talk of multiple vaccines gathering momentum hugely encouraging. Without question or hesitation, the soul-nurturing we crave as a people right now.
Digital Photo Restoration Proves Therapeutic
But before we get to that, there’s this. The not so inconsequential matter of just how we’re all going to get through this lockdown sequel together. And moreover, how we intend to positively reset our minds and bodies as we seek-out individual coping mechanisms.
Recreation might be curtailed somewhat by the seasonal circumstances witnessed outside our windows on the immediate world. Last time we were asked to stay safe close to home, we obliged. In a way kids of 80s parents were brought up on, with the climate playing a helping hand in making the impossible, possible.
Bearable, acheivable and enjoyable in equal parts, as it turned out.
However this time, the hope that spring ushers eternal with its onset, is but a faded memory. As winter is an unavoidably darker prospect; another bete noir instalment.
Yet nevertheless, it’s a cosier one. Ensuring any negatives are quickly reversed into positives, being DT‘s raison d’être. A mantra which extends far beyond our digital photo restoration calling
This time of asking/year, our personal boltholes and castles themselves can be snug sanctuaries. As much as an oversized mug of hot chocolate.
So internalised despair should be saved for those poor souls who need our thoughts and deeds far more pressingly. Of which the street, not just what lies beneath the roofs above our heads, are paved in. Should we take a casual glance.
More Enforced Connectivity Inspires Visual Trips Down Memory Lane
During the first nationwide lockdown, one of the more emotional touchstones which folk practised as much as mindfulness and permitted exercise was sorting through their photo albums.
The ancient storage vessels of which hadn’t seen the light of non-loft day for a considerable passage of time, by clients’ own admissions. We know that other photographic compendiums will be dusted off once more over the next few weeks. Especially with the advent of Yuletide blinking ahead.
As a prize of sorts, after this imposed early winter hibernation.
The full gamut of emotions can – and will – be experienced once you flick through the pages of photo albums. Or alternatively, swipe the screens of contemporary devices, as it is – lest we need reminding – 2020 after all.
A time and a place where seamless tech has afforded us all instantaneous escapism from the spectre of that other inexplicable viral force which engulfs us with its presence.
Thank you Zoom. For a wealth of opportunities, and eyebrow-raising backgrounds. You too, Facetime. Internet book and art clubs and quizes, fun home schooling lessons, banana bread recipes, Joe Wicks, et al, as well.
Lend Visual Clarity to Old Photographs You Might Have Imagined Were Beyond Revitalising
Yet DT, like so many of you, know that there’s a certain rawness, tactility and spine-tingly depth to an old photo. Which doesn’t exist in contemporary iterations.
And, as we’ve all journeyed back to some degree. Back, to get to our more simplistic, thoughtful, spiritually sustained futures. It’s often been our welcome reconnecting with 2D prints which have provided the life-and-times-affirming conduit. That which we didn’t even realise we had missed nor subconsciously craved so much.
So do, please, get in touch with us, if we can help restore an existing photo. Or edit an image which hasn’t survived as well as we have this year. And hopefully DT can spread a little early seasonal cheer.
By way of fulfilling your brief. And ultimately delivering the sort of warm cheer that only a timely John Lewis ad could traditionally hope to achieve.