Photo Rescue Program

 

 
The tsunami of unspeakable proportions which followed the 11th March 9.0 magnitude earthquake, destroyed livelihoods, homes, possessions and history. As people fled for high ground, often the last thing they tried to save and the first thing they went back to salvage were their photographs.

Sadly, among the most common personal items we find on our work sites are these irreplaceable images of people’s past.  What remains today are thousands of partially damaged or lost photos.

But one of our volunteers has a plan.  She has a special skill.  She also has a worldwide network of friends and colleagues who are joining forces to support her, and to support Japan.  From this one volunteer came the most recent and diverse program to be added to the work of All Hands Volunteers on Project Tohoku.

Becci has made a living editing photos and retouching them for some of the world’s most prestigious photographers.  With a passion for images that few can rival, she has created a program to restore photos damaged by the wave that crashed across the north eastern shore of Japan. Becci and her global network of retouchers are volunteering to restore hundreds of these damaged photos.

The work is inspiring.  The results of some of the world’s top retouchers is impossibly good. This program reaches from Australia to Turkey, the US to the UK, and New Zealand to Japan. The list of remote volunteers stands at 235 from 20 different countries. Over 220 priceless family photos have been retouched to either perfect or near perfect condition, graciously accepted by nearly 60 families. On site in Ofunato, dozens of volunteers have meticulously cleaned some 70,000 dirty photos.
 

 
For the elderly people of Tohoku, with images pre-dating digital technology, this service is simply amazing, almost impossible.  These were the photos that told the stories of their lives. Despite being severely scratched and water damaged, the skill of these retouchers is able to retouch many of them back to their original state.

We pay tribute to the impact a single volunteer can make, starting something so spectacular, simply by doing what she does.  We thank you, Becci, and we thank the world wide network of volunteers that have agreed to lend their time and talent to this most worthy of causes.
 

 

If you’re a professional retoucher looking to get involved, contact: photorescue@hands.org

You can view all of our photos on Flickr .

Becci Manson is leading this program as a two-time All Hands Volunteer. To learn more about Project Tohoku, All Hands’ tsunami response project, please click here.