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Archive for Bespoke Projects
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In Series 3 Episode 5 Sarah Beeny discovers many odd antiques and family heirlooms that have been passed down through generations and decides that the best way to use these findings in their new home is to transform their downstairs cloakroom into a Victorian cupboard of curiosities. That’s where Photographs Forever came in and we were asked to restore some of the deteriorating precious family photographs.
Here’s one as we received it, together with the restored version and below as it appeared actually in situ in the cloakroom.
New Life in the Country is a Channel 4 documentary series starring property expert and TV presenter Sarah Beeny and her family. The show follows Beeny, her husband Graham Swift, and their four sons as they embark on an ambitious project to build a sustainable new home and start a new chapter in the Somerset countryside.
The series documents the Beeny family’s move from London to rural Somerset, where they take on the challenge of building a modern, eco-friendly home on 220 acres of farmland. It captures the highs and lows of creating a new life in the countryside, from construction challenges to the family’s adaptation to a different lifestyle.
The show is a mix of property development, family life, and lifestyle change. It highlights themes of sustainability, self-sufficiency, and the rewards and difficulties of significant life changes.
Throughout the episodes, viewers see various stages of the home’s construction, interior design decisions, and landscaping projects. The show also delves into the family’s day-to-day life, interactions with the local community, and adjustments to country living.
The series has been well-received for its genuine depiction of family life and the beauty of the English countryside. Viewers appreciate Sarah Beeny’s relatable approach and openness about the challenges they face.
Sarah Beeny and Graham Swift’s project reflects their long-held dream of raising their children closer to nature and living a more grounded lifestyle. The documentary provides insights into the balancing act between professional ambition and family priorities.
Overall, New Life in the Country offers an engaging mix of home-building inspiration, personal storytelling, and picturesque rural life that appeals to fans of property shows and lifestyle documentaries.
We’d like to share with you the fascinating story of Stephen Raffield, an avid Titanic historian and collector, who came to us last year with a very special photo album. Stephen and his wife had acquired a personal photograph album of John Kempster’s containing unique, never before seen, historic photographs of both Olympic and Titanic ships. The album was headed for being completely dismantled before they stepped in.
Stephen explains, ‘John Kempster joined Harland and Wolff Belfast in 1900, and was appointed as managing director in 1906 in charge of the electrical plant. Kempster became involved in the construction and launch of both Olympic and Titanic. He was also a very keen photographer and, in 2012, an album of photographs taken and developed by him came to light. A lady walked into a Wiltshire auction house and asked if the album she was holding was worth anything. As well as a number of photographs of the Kempster’s family holiday in America in 1911, the album contained stunning, never seen before, photos of Olympic leaving Belfast for her maiden voyage and also the launch of Titanic and her own departure from Belfast for the first and last time. The photographs are of exquisite quality and finely detailed. The initial plan of the auctioneers was to break up the album and sell off the photographs singly or in small batches. Steve and Jane Raffield, collectors of Titanic memorabilia, were able to negotiate the purchase of the whole album so that this unique record of both Olympic and Titanic at Belfast would be preserved for the future.’
Stephen came to us with the Kempster album. We scanned the photos in high definition so that each photograph could be safely stored on Stephen’s computer and was also able to appreciate the greater detail of the enlarged images for the first time!
We went on to digitally enhance, and bring out of the photos even more definition by using modern technology, and removing any imperfections from the photos which Kempster himself had developed and printed. We also re-created the album so Stephen could give replica copies to his children.
“The restored photos are simply stunning. The originals are amazing and I didn’t think you could improve much from what are the most detailed photos in the world of the launch of Titanic. Absolutely amazing!”
The original album, photographs and the rest of the Raffield Titanic Collection are currently on display in Brisbane, Australia.
Going, Going, Gone!
Here is one of the frames we provided showing photographs of the Titanic actually being launched.
It’s very easy to start the process of saving your own precious photos. All you have to do is send us a message!
We recently helped David by restoring two fading 1970s photographs of him, one for the front cover of his forthcoming autobiography.
David says:
“Due out in July/August is my autobiography, David Hamilton’s Long And Winding Road, My life, loves and lessons learned, published by Austin Macauley and celebrating my 65th year in broadcasting.
Choosing the right pictures for the front cover is vital and the publishers wanted a Then and Now, a shot of me in my Radio 1 days in the 70`s and one in my Boom Radio studio today.
I had in a frame at home a picture in the Radio 1 studio taken in 1975 that had faded, probably from sunlight. It needed enhancing. I had heard of Photographs Forever through their advertising on Boom Radio. Since I live in West Sussex it wasn’t too long a journey to pay them a visit.
Richard was absolutely brilliant, worked his magic on the photo and here it is, looking as good as new. Well done, Photographs Forever and Thank You.”
We recently restored several images of Norman Wisdom for his son Nick. These were to form part of an exhibition that Nick is mounting.
We restored these two photographs so they could be printed the appropriate size for the framed exhibit of Norman’s suit dating back to 1952.
Nick says:
“As the Norman Wisdom Exhibition reaches its capacity of circa eighty frames, it’s fair to say that the best has been saved to last. A five foot high frame (below) features Norman’s long tailed suit first worn in the theatre in 1952. As ever, thanks must go to the experts who I have come to rely on. Gerald Fleuss, master calligrapher and Richard Haines of Photographs Forever who can resurrect and adapt any form of photography to great effect.”
We were asked by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council to restore 49 faded framed portraits of their Mayors going back many years. This involved removing the existing photographs from their frames, scanning and digitally restoring each one as well as reintroducing all the red and gold elements of many. Here is just one of the worse ones showing before and after our restoration.
When all 49 were fully restored we printed them all on archive grade paper (so the fading will no longer be an issue going forward) and replaced them in their original frames. Here they are safely reinstalled and being regularly enjoyed by all visitors the the Town Hall.
Our customer is creating a gallery of his grandchildren’s’ sports photos and this photo had lots of unneccesary elements he wanted removed.
He was very pleased with the two 16″ x 12″ canvases he ordered of the final image
Initially, Keith asked us to restore the picture of him and his sister in Trafalgar Square when they were children. A few months later he came back to us with a re-enacted picture of the two of them taken recently that they wanted to gift to their mum, and we helped to get it looking as close to the original as possible.
Brenda C sent us this message to ask if we could help:
I am having new kitchen worktops and was going to have a glass splashback across the cooker wall. I have decided to use two landscape photos placed somehow in the glass splashbacks but details have to be obviously pretty exact.
Would you be interested in creating the photo panorama for the glass manufacturers. It would consist of one landscape view, one central portrait view above the cooker and another landscape view. The photos to be used are of The Solent looking across to the IOW with sailing club yachts. Blue sky with few clouds, blue sea and the yachts have their dark blue spinnaker sails open. Obviously, sky, sea etc have to be in alignment with one another.
We have done this kind of bespoke project before and told Brenda we would be very happy to help. Brenda’s photos above show the original photographs we were supplied with and the finished result. We increased the proportions to allow for the exact placing of the power point positions which meant more sea was required.
Brenda was very happy with the finished result achieved by us and the glass manufacturing company, and sent us this feedback on the final splashback:
Everyone has loved the splashback with not one negative comment. Most comments are ‘Wow’. I love it and every time I go into the kitchen, it looks so clean and bright. I am also pleased that the upstand removes enough of the sea to balance the yachts being so high. Now you have added my splashback on your new website, I have sent the web page link to many friends.
I don’t know how you did it but it was exactly how I wanted it. I have been trying to find each of the yachts from my photos but have given up trying to find them now!
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