Stepping Back

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1940. Here's the original framing of a photo I posted earlier.

The Full View

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1936. I earlier posted a cropped version of this photo of my paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, and his daughter, Jonė.

Thanks to my Kaunas Cousin for making this original available to us.

Let's look at an original print.

Summer Cottage, 1914. Many of the old photos I post are scans of images my Dad restored. If I find a faded or damaged snapshot, I usually modify it. Here's an image I adjusted earlier.

Another Look at the First Photo

Hey! This is the first photo I posted on this blog. Why am I republishing it? I recently discovered some original prints my Dad had cropped and reprinted for our family photo albums. It's interesting to revisit the images in their larger context:

Atlantic Ocean, June 1949. This photo helps me better understand how small the boat was.

One More Original

Radviliškis, Lithuania, 1923. Here's another original image. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, sits with her twins—Jonė and my Dad. Here's the cropped version I posted earlier.

A Wider View

I recently posted photos (here and here) that my Dad had cropped during his restoration of the original images. 

Here is another original snapshot; Dad's slightly altered image is here.

Radviliškis, Lithuania, 1923. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, introduces her twins—Jonė and my Dad—to her mother, Nina K. This photo differs only a bit from the one my Dad restored. The blankets (rugs?) are more visible here; I wonder if Tatjana used them as bedding for the twins.

I look at another original snapshot.

I recently wrote about my Dad's habit of cropping old images when he restored them.
 
Here's another example of what I had in mind:

Bremerhaven, Germany, 1948. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, emigrates to the United States. Here is how my Dad framed the original snapshot.
 
Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

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.

Russian Roots, Revisited

Tambov, Russia, about 1905. I posted a photo of Pavel and Nina K.—the parents of my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana—when I first started the blog. The image was one my Dad had rephotographed. Dad had zoomed in on the subjects' faces, cropping out a good part of the photo.

I recently found the original print stored in the envelope called "Babos šeima Rusijoi"—Grandma's family in Russia. I post the image here: the original gives a better view of my Great-Grandparents, sitting in front of their house. Pavel has a newspaper on his lap, and Nina K. holds some work; I wonder if it's mending.