Everything about this photograph is beautiful to me. The youngest child in the first photograph is of my grandmother, Jean, at approximately one and a half (perhaps two) years old with her sister, Vivian. And although we do not have an exact date that the photograph was taken, we estimate that the 12x19 inch image in the oval frame is ninety-nine to one hundred years old. It’s priceless.
My grandmother passed away in 2015 at the incredible age of one hundred and one. She lived in portions of Texas and rural Oklahoma over her lifetime and had memories of riding in a horse drawn carriage, went through the Great Depression, and picked cotton until her fingers were raw alongside her siblings. She saw the evolution of time unfold as wars were fought and the arrival of our tech savvy culture as we know it today. It’s a beautiful portrait. It marks a place and time no longer visible to us except through a photograph.
My favorite thing to do with my grandmother as I grew older was to sit next to her and look at old black and white photographs. She would tell stories about her family and friends while we marked the back with names and dates as best she could remember them. Among those photos sat the image you see here. It is of Jean at approximately age sixteen. 
It’s a small picture (no bigger than a two by three inch image) and I was happy to be able to scan and restore the photograph to use at her memorial service last year. It’s priceless.
As a photographer, I understand that creating professional portraiture of you and your family is an investment. Preparing for a photo shoot means planning the clothing to be worn, and clearing everyone’s schedule for a specific day and time. It’s also a financial investment. However, the results from that investment may just be hanging on the wall, treasured, for a hundred years or more… a priceless heirloom.
Do you have a family heirloom portrait that you would like to share a story about? Place the story in the comments below. I would love to hear about it!
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