Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What Water Damages, Retouchers Save

The photo is a reminder of someone or something, a place,
a relationship, a loved one. [Photos are] our memory keepers,
our histories, the last thing we'd grab and the first thing we'd look 
for. That's all this project was about, about restoring those little
bits of humanity and giving someone that connection back.
~ Rebecca Manson

In this moving and inspirational video, professional photo retoucher Rebecca Manson of the U.S.-based nonprofit All Hands presents a TED talk* about her and other volunteers' months-long effort to clean, repair, and restore some 135,000 damaged photos of families and their loved ones found amid the detritus of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

More about Project Tohoku is here.



Direct Video Link

* Manson gave her talk at the TEDGlobal 2012 Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.

At Manson's Website, you'll find a November, 2011, Good Morning America feature on the All Hands project in Japan.

All Hands on FaceBook and Twitter

3 comments:

Louise Gallagher said...

Oh wow -- isn't the world filled with the most amazing people! wow

Margaret Almon said...

When I was in Library School, I was drawn to the class on Preservation, and the possibility of mending and restoring. Rebecca's project is wonderful.

Anonymous said...

good one.