Reverting to the originals.

When my Dad restored photos, he usually cropped the frames so the snapshots focused on the human subjects. This approach eliminated what interests me: the images' settings. When my Toronto Cousin visited recently, she brought many of the original snapshots. The photos are richer in their original context. Here are two examples. Both images are from the same party, hosted at the home of my paternal Grandparents, Tatjana and Vytautas.

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1940. Here's the image I posted earlier; that's how Dad had cropped it. In this original, Dad still appears disengaged. But I get a better sense of how his Father, Vytautas, took this photo, unnoticed, from the doorway, and captured the seventeen-year-olds' shared moments.

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Kaunas, Lithuania, 194o. Here is the cropped version. In this original—which my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, called "At Home"—Vytautas again stands in the hallway. His wife Tatjana, is aware of his presence, and I get a better sense of what the house looked like.