The Gladys Project

Hello again! 

Let's begin. 

I wanted to share a project today that I am in the beginning stages of and I am very excited about! This project came about last August, when my grandmother, Gladys Zink, passed away. Her death wasn't necessarily a shock, she was old, and had a couple of episodes that she just couldn't come back from. Although it was sad, and she is definitely missed, she also inspired me to start doing so many things I had been putting off for so long (i.e. bake an apple pie from scratch). Although pie is delicious, the main takeaway was this: She liked taking fun photos. 

I always knew my grandmother was a fun person. Let's be honest, she was probably the best grandmother out there. Not only did she love the Lord, and have a sense of humor, but she genuinely cared about all of us enough to always be honest to us. That's real love, y'all. But I only ever knew her as a grandmother. Yeah, I had maybe heard a couple of stories from her about when she was growing up (in West Virginia during the depression), but I had never heard the stories of when she was a single lady on the prowl. Or stories from when my dad was growing up. All of these stories, and fabulous photos surfaced at Gladys' memorial service. (There was much crying, but a lot of it stemmed from laughter)

The day before her memorial, at the viewing (which are always awkward BTW) I got to see so many photos of this beautiful, strong, bold, young lady who was in love with her man and her Jesus. Most of the photos I had never seen, and they were wonderful. I probably saw the slideshow of her photos three times straight through when it hit me: She was awesome. These pictures were awesome. I take pictures. She has lots of beautiful granddaughters. Why don't we recreate some of them?

Since that epiphanic moment, I have been scheming in my head, thinking of how to get it done. I know I want the new photos to stay as close to the originals as I can. For me, this requires some ingenuity to take the photo in the proper location, and having the right techniques to edit them in the antique style. I also want to find clothes & hats that are similar to what Gladys was wearing in the picture. Most of these details will take me a while to work out. For now, I've settled for test shoots. 

Over Thanksgiving, part of my family came over to our house and I took pictures of my Aunt Abby (Gladys youngest daughter) and her family. While I had a camera in my hands, I grabbed my cousin, Jessica, and tried out my first shot. 

Here is the original picture of Gladys, standing in front of a tree, hiking her skirt up to her knees. 

This is honestly one of my favorite photos of her. I don't know where they were, why she was standing up against a tree, or why she felt the need to hike her skirt up, nevertheless I love every aspect of it. 

With Jessica's photo, I placed her in front of our old oak tree in our backyard. Luckily, she showed up wearing a dress with fringe on the bottom (she didn't know I would be doing this that day), and her signature cowboy boots just add a bit of her personality to the shot. 

What do you think? We want to try again and style Jess's hair up, and find a slightly longer dress so you don't see as much of her leg. 

I'm really happy with the results, especially the Marilyn Monroe vibe in her face. 

Next, I will be attempting this photo using me as the model: 

I love the  the three leaf-clover broach she is wearing & the lovely look on her face. After this photo was taken she probably stood up and made a fart noise then blamed it on the photographer, that was her just her style. 

Thanks for coming. Thanks for reading. I'd love some feedback; if you've got anything to say, please leave a comment!