The first image you see, below, is the original image as it appeared when Carol received it for restoration.
Slide the arrow to the right to reveal the image after Carol's amazing restoration work.
Clients bring the most interesting and valuable photos to Hawkins Studio for repair. This 1911 photo of Pancho Villa and His Gang was badly faded, cracked, and severely water damaged. It had been mistreated - including a stint served on the wall of a Baylor University dorm room in the 1960s. Back then a tongue-in-cheek plastic label had been affixed bearing the nickname of the gang of roommates in the dorm. Not surprisingly major portions of the picture were no longer decipherable.
At high resolution Carol "searched out" and repainted many of these lost areas. Going area by area she corrected inappropriate color and contrast and added definition to faded facial features to increase recognizability of Pancho's gang.
Villa had an extremely high tech army for his era and historical accuracy is of extreme importance to Carol. A firearms expert was able to identify the rifle of the man on the left of this detail so that Hawkins could be sure the gun could be put back in the photo with the greatest of accuracy.
Working value-by-value this restoration required over 40 hrs. to accomplish. The print is almost 2 feet wide wide requiring a wide-format printer for the finished archival print. In the process Hawkins learned that many a Texan had a grandmother or great-grandfather whose paths crossed with Villa's. The stories she heard are fascinating.
If you look carefully at the finished image it's possible to still see parts which could be improved but most clients are working within a budget - which Carol accommodates.