ABOUT reSTORYation
ReSTORYation explores reclamation of memory, identity, the self and the relationships we share with people and the world around us through the restoration of damaged photos.
The damaged and restored images featured in this project were submitted by online community members who filled out a Google Form that asked for the importance behind repairs to a photo damaged by weather, rips, tears, markings, discoloration, fire, and time. The accepted damaged photos were repaired in Adobe Photoshop and only to the extent of how they would have originally appeared when first taken. The focus here is not reimagination of reality, but recovery of it.
Alongside the damaged photo submissions and their restoration results can be seen the story behind each one when it was originally taken. The stories represented in this project transcend themes and memories of love, family, place, joy, and loss through decades of photos.
My love for and dedication to this kind of work comes from personal experience. I once took on a personal project to restore photos of my grandparents' home after they lost photos of it, their home, and everything to a fire in the 1980's. Seeing their reaction to viewing a subject they never thought would be visible again made this project the most rewarding artistic endeavor I have ever embarked on. I hope that reSTORYation gave others the opportunity to reclaim the images and the memories and feelings of something they felt was lost or impaired forever.
All my love to Photoshop’s clone stamp tool and those who shared their stories with me, with us.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Maya Costanzo is a May 2021 graduate of American University where she obtained a B.A. in International Studies and Foreign Language and Communication Media Studies with specializations in Spanish and Film & Media Arts. She is passionate about exploring the relationship that the arts share with intercultural communications and international development. Maya has a love for telling and elevating human stories and experiences through service, theater, film, photography, and graphic design work. She especially enjoys when opportunities to work in these worlds intersect. Her time acting, directing, and serving on the Public Relations Team with the AU Rude Mechanicals Theater Troupe is of note and made her new position as Director of Public Relations within Wildwood Summer Theater possible.
