Dad's Self-Portrait, A Digital Collaboration

Dad's Self-Portrait, A Digital Collaboration
Originally uploaded by randubnick.

About six or seven years ago, one of my aunts gave me some early photos of my Dad that I had never seen before. I was looking through them recently and came across the original version of this one. The back was labeled "self-portrait" under his name and date(1938, when he would have been around 20). He must have used a remote device to take this picture of himself. But apparently the flash was too strong, washing the color out of his hair. There were also some scratches and other minor problems. So I decided to edit the photo and post it today (August 29 was his birthday). I scanned the photo, then used Painter IX's digital photo tools to darken the hair, remove a scrap of paper on the table, fix some scratches, and crop the image to focus on the face of the young man who would become my father ten years after this photo was taken. My father was a musician (like my son) and talented in foreign language (like my daughter). It was nice to remember that also liked to take pictures (all those home movies!) And it was also nice to think of this as a kind of collaboration, as I edited the self-portrait that he created all those years ago.