Photo book as gift project

[Tony Egan]

I thought I would share a project I have just completed. It is a photo book for my mother's 70th birthday next week. Her father (my grandfather) spent time with the Australian Imperial Forces in what was then "British Palestine" during WWII. A keen photographer he took several hundred photographs while on tour and the negatives found their way to me about 10 years ago. (he was in an engineering corps, not the front line) Digital technology has some positives. In photoshop I have scanned and restored/repaired many negatives which were badly scratched and stained. I have made some lovely fibre prints by contact printing digital negatives. Below is a link to a preview of the book. (Momento is an Australian company but I am sure there are similar products available in most parts of the world.)
http://www.momento.com.au/preview.asp?b=8767-9571-0319

Also attached is my favourite image from the collection.

p.s. it is sad to reflect on the war, violence and misery still going on in this part of the world. Looking at the faces in these negatives it seems obvious that 99% of people want to leave in peace and harmony and get on with their lives. Surely war is just plain stupid and a fundamental failure of human reason and intelligence. 60 years on....we have learnt???

 

[Tony Egan]

p.p.s. in one of the negatives I could just make out a window sign saying Matsons Photo Service which led me to this interesting Library of Congress web site where I researched some of the locations and places and found some photographs almost identical to those taken by my grandfather.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/matpchtml/matpcac.html

 

[DBP]

My father has long been working on a similar project with negatives his father took in WWI. I'll have to pass this along as inspiration.

 

[reellis67]

Tony,

I think your project is a great idea, and thanks for the history link. I'd not heard of that before, and it was an interesting read. Thanks for passing that along!

- Randy

 

[StephenS]

Nice. I really like the photos of Damascus Gate and the Kotel. Its a place I spend a lot of time lately. I'm very familiar with the photo service you mention and the link. There's a good book about early photography in that part of the world.

I'd love to have those negative to scan and print from. Very lucky.

 

[Tony Egan]

Thank you Stephen for the additional information about the location of many of the photos in the book. I should have thought of throwing this challenge out to APUGers and their networks a bit sooner!

In case there is anyone else out there familiar with these areas of Palestine/Israel please take a look at larger versions of the images at this URL. If you know someone else who could help please feel free to forward to them also.
http://www.pbase.com/tonyegan/jacks

If you can help identify the monuments, buildings, landmarks etc. please leave your comments or SWAGs in the comments box below each image.

Much appreciated and thanks,

Tony

 

[Mick Fagan]

Tony, this is something I will suggest to my wifes family about my late father in-laws photographs from the African and Russian fronts.

He was a photographer for the German army. One day, out of the blue, he asked me if I would be interested in seeing some historical pictures. He then pulled out some shoeboxes and we went through about 500 contact pictures of some of the things he saw and recorded.

Absolutely riveting stuff. My wife didn't even know about these pictures, it was the first time he had ever shown these pictures or spoke about them, to her and her siblings.

Very nice present for your mother, I'm sure.

Mick.