Bringing back the past... and printing photos in a land without Shutterfly

Anyone who knows me and my dad knows we love photography.  

But really, photography is just a representation of what we truly value -- relationships, sentimentality, memories... capturing moments from the past and holding onto them so we don't forget.  

Several years ago I was given some advice that I've never forgotten:  

1) If you don't take a photo of it, it never happened, and

2.) You will only remember those moments that you have photographed

(in other words, photographs are memory triggers)

_____________________________

This winter we repainted the main meeting room in the ministry center.  It was a good excuse to take down all the random bits and pieces that had been hanging on the walls for years and start over again for a fresh look. 

In March, Abby designed a mural to go on the long wall through which you enter the room.  It's been fantastic and enjoyed by everyone who visits.  She had the foresight and generosity to include the community in the project so they feel like they have contributed too.  I love that it gives imagery to Scripture and hopefully imprints the verses they represent on the hearts of those who enter the space.

But we we had three more blank walls.  Lots of possibility. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with the wall opposite the mural, but it would take some careful planning.

Here's a "before" photo I took with my camera phone:

Over the fifteen years that Planters has been in Vlashaj, my dad and I have taken a LOT of photographs.  It's bothered me that I haven't done a better job sharing some of those pictures we have taken.  I'm sure our village friends have wondered what in the world we've done with all those photos we have snapped.  To be sure, some have been printed and given as gifts, others have served as wonderful stock photos, communicating the work in this community to partners in the States, but many, many others have sat lost in digital oblivion, a collection of 1s and 0s.

It occurred to me that it might be special to all involved if I displayed images from over the years as a "virtual timeline" to honor the village.  But being new to Albania, on a limited budget without the plethora of printing options available "back home", how was I going to see this idea materialized? I needed to find places to get these images printed and displayed in a manner that wouldn't cost a small fortune.

I'll spare you a lot of details, but suffice it say, all because the framer at my favorite frame shop got arrested (and the framing department closed indefinitely), I stumbled upon a very economical alternative to traditional printing and framing large pieces of wall art!

My first discovery was an advertisement/print shop that prints digital files on canvas quite inexpensively (a fraction of the cost of paper prints of equivalent size, don't ask me why -- I'm half afraid they're going to discover they made a mistake in their pricing and I'm going to be brought back to reality).

Then, I discovered an art shop that makes and sells blank white stretched canvases for artists/painters. With a little bit of explanation from me, they made a frame to suit the size of my test photo, then wrapped my printed canvas entirely around the edges of the frame so no white border showed and stapled it to the back of the frame.  Nathan added a simple sawtooth hanger and voila!  I had a ready-to-hang piece of photo art! My test piece, a 16x24" print around a thin wooden frame, printing and stretching included cost the equivalent of $13 USD, cheaper than an off-the-shelf frame at Hobby Lobby!

With my production sources figured out, it was suddenly down to drawing up a layout and selecting images to use!  Granted, it's not as convenient as one-stop-online ordering and doorstep delivery like back home, but for the price difference, a little bit of extra walking and metric conversions is worth it!

A couple of weeks later and here's Nathan hanging up the first phase of my photo display.  I went with a combination of thick and thin wrapped frames for interest and dimension:

(I apologize for the camera phone quality) The top left photo is an image of the original center before a second floor was added.

The reaction to the photos surpassed my expectations.  From oldest to the youngest, everyone has peered at them with utter fascination, even those who were not living here when some of the images were captured. 

Then it dawned on me.  Until just the last few years when camera phones became more affordable, no one in this village had a means of capturing every day photos of their lives.  There's no local newspaper, no yearbooks, no school picture day here.  It's like someone opened a time-capsule, or transported them back in time.  

Poverty meant more to them than a lack of enough to eat or extra clothes in their wardrobe.  It meant the lack of a personal or community history through something I've taken for granted: photographs.

My favorite reactions have come from folks pointing to the kids in the big group photo:

"That's Flevi's brother!  Oh!  She's in Italy now.  Look how skinny so-and-so was back then!  He's not skinny anymore!  That kid? He now owns the car wash in Maminas!"

Throughout the weekend, if we had the gate open, kids would come in with their friends to show them the photographs on the wall.  Shpresa joked that we should charge admission for our 'exposition!'

Even the ones who count themselves in the 'new crowd' were particularly tickled to be immortalized on the wall.

Just like family photos help our temporary apartment feel like home, I hope seeing their faces on the walls not only gives our village friends more ownership in the center but a sense of welcome and belonging when they enter the doors.  

Now I can't wait to tackle the rest of my project!  If you're reading this and you have visited Vlashaj, send me some of your favorite photographs to consider!  I have big gaps in my photo collection as most of our photo files are in the States.  I want to include as many different individuals and families as possible.