Historical Preservation Project

Hundreds of old and new family photographs, negatives, and slides sit stacked on my floor, ready to be restored and archived digitally. This is a project that I had been wanting to do for some time now. Primarily because, for most second generation Korean-Americans, heirlooms and histories or geneology tables written in English are scarce, if nonexistent; so family photos come closest to a tangible family history. Given the age and deterioration of some of the most valuable photos in the collection, including some rare shots taken during my grandparents' earlier days in occupied Korea, there was a growing sense of urgency to restore and preserve eternally through digital technology the images dating back to what will soon constitute an entire century, spanning three or more generations of family memories. The later photos definitely lighten the mood and the gravity of the earlier ones which subtly and not so subtly reflect on the turbulence of their particular times. Think two world wars, poverty, foreign occupation, civil war, the Cold War, national division, nascent democratization, harsh autocratic regimes, etc. The Korean civil war in particular touched the lives of every Korean family; and the legacies resulting from the forced separations of family members continue to echo through our generation and I suspect, future generations. On a lighter note, many of the more recent photos cover the typical milieu of a midwestern, suburban family (think images of grass lawns and large tract homes, weekend picnics at the lake, the obligatory cross-country family roadtrip, boy scout and girl scout gatherings, cheesy halloween costumes, decorated Christmas trees, large Thanksgiving Day spreads, etc.). It will be interesting to see how these images contrast with those of our children and their children. Hopefully not as starkly as those between ours and our grandparents' times.