MORE than 8000 pieces of Inverell regional history have come back into the light.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Inverell and District Family History Group received an unexpected legacy early this year when Stuart Devine, son of deceased Inverell studio photographer George Devine, released boxes and boxes of negatives, from the family portrait studio to the public.
From peach-cheeked babies, elegant family portraits and wedding parties, the images of district residents range from the 1930s to the 1960s.
A recent scanner and software purchase has allowed group members to pull on protective cotton gloves and begin the process of digitizing the negatives for posterity and identification.
“Then we’re cataloguing them and archiving them,and then they’ll be sent over to the (UNE) Heritage Centre for safekeeping in Armidale,” group president Kathy McLeod said.
“There’s a few of us that are working.”
Merv Hixon was on the job Wednesday afternoon.
He carefully placed the negative of a charming arrangement of a small girl standing on a chair seat, and a boy, his legs dangling from an elegant bowed-leg table onto the scanner.
Kathy said there was some urgency as several negatives were in the process of decay.
She gingerly held up the image of a wedding portrait, perhaps from the early 1960s, infected with warp, cracks and missing emulsion.
“They’re starting to deteriorate badly, and the sooner we can scan them and at least digitize the image, at least we’ve got part of it,” Kathy said, and gently sniffed the negative.
“And it’s starting to smell a little bit vinegar-y, too, which also indicates that they’re breaking down a bit.”
They’re starting to deteriorate badly, and the sooner we can scan them and at least digitize the image, at least we’ve got part of it.
- Kathy McLeod
Part of the discovery is putting names to the thousands of faces Devine took in his decades behind the camera. Kathy hopes to have a variety of ways people can assist with identification.
“Once we get enough scanned, we will start putting the photos out there and we might even have an open day (to) have people to come in, Sonya (Lange)’s offered for the library to use, there’s a Facebook page (and) website,” Kathy said.
Kathy felt excited to have the technology to turn the boxes of shadowy images into the clear photos depicting faces of Inverell’s past.
“Forty-three we’ve scanned, so that’s a start,” she said.
To learn more about the Devine photo project, stop in at the IDFHG rooms on Monday, Wednesday or Friday from 10am to 3pm, or phone group member Judy Pischke on 0448 047 508.