PhotoReviv

I restore damaged photographs. Most of the pictures I see have been kept for a long time: family portraits, wedding photographs, childhood prints, military pictures, school portraits, and snapshots that survived in a drawer or an album. They arrive torn, stained, faded, creased, or worn at the edges. Many show more than one of those problems.

I work independently. When you send a photograph, I am the person who looks at it, explains what I can do, and performs the restoration. There is no production line and no anonymous queue. That matters because damaged photographs do not behave alike, and the judgment required is specific to each print.

How I approach the work

I begin with assessment. Before beginning restoration, I look at the source image and identify the visible damage, the areas that still hold photographic information, and the areas that do not. I would rather describe a limitation clearly than promise a complete recovery that the original cannot support.

I treat original photographs with respect. The digital file is a restored version of the image, not a license to redesign the people or the room. Facial features, clothing, and backgrounds stay as they are unless damage has interrupted them and the surrounding photograph shows what belongs there.

Conservative restoration is often the right choice. Not every mark on an old print needs to disappear. Age can be part of the photograph’s character. I concentrate on damage that gets in the way of seeing the picture: tears, heavy stains, scratches across a face, fold lines, and fading that has made the image hard to read.

I am transparent about what restoration cannot do. Completely missing information cannot always be reconstructed with accuracy. If a section of the original is gone, I will say whether neighboring detail makes a limited repair possible, or whether that area has to remain a loss.

I pay attention to small photographic details. A button, a collar, a window in the background, the particular way a print was originally exposed — those things keep a restored file connected to the photograph you actually have.

Working from Boulder, CO 80301

I work with clients in the United States by digital submission through photoreviv.com. You do not need to mail the original photograph. A scan or a careful photograph of the print is enough for assessment, and in most cases it is enough for the restoration itself.