Do you know what happened to those boxes of family photos in your Aunt Pearl's attic after she died? Does anyone?
Years ago (pre-Pictures and Stories days) I was working as a photographer and mixed media artist. One of my favorite pastimes was to lurk in antique stores and junk shops, looking for discarded photos that I could use in art projects. These "lost souls" spoke to me and gave me ideas for stories I could tell visually. My fanciful stories were a departure from reality, but I loved the process of giving these abandoned photos a new "life."
But what if you could bring these "lost souls" back to life in a real way? When I recently stumbled across "Lost and Found: The Search for Harry and Edna," I was moved and fascinated. And also a little bit scared.
Photographer Jeff Phillips also had a habit of scouring junk shops for discarded family photos. One day he hit the jackpot: 30 boxes of Kodachrome slides that documented the life of a couple identified only as Harry and Edna. He paid $60 for the lot and then set about trying to find out more about them.
The mysterious Harry and Edna.
The resulting search became a website, social media phenomenon, and series of art exhibits. It's also a gripping detective story with a crowd-sourced twist.
But it also made me think: what will happen to my lost relatives? I have a box of unidentified ancestral photos, people I know are related to me, but in what way? They led full, interesting lives. Yet in a few short generations, nobody remembers who they are, what they did, what they lost, or who they loved. I crave knowledge of them, but because their stories weren't documented, I may never know.
Do you know where your relatives are?
Were Harry and Edna found? You'll have to read the story to find out.
Click on the picture to see the story of Harry and Edna.
