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How a man's love for photo restoration takes Islanders on a journey through time

Amateur photo restoration artist Earle MacDonald says he's worked on more than 9,000 pictures since taking up the hobby eight years ago.

Earle MacDonald says he's worked on more than 9,000 pictures since taking up the hobby 8 years ago

Arturo Chang · CBC News ·
Queen Street, Charlottetown. Earle MacDonald restores historical photos such as this one and posts them on his Facebook page. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)

Amateur photo restoration artist Earle MacDonald says he's probably worked on more than 9,000 pictures since taking up the hobby eight years ago.

A history aficionado, MacDonald got into photography restoration in his retirement after he started posting old photos on social media pages dedicated to Island history and realizing how much interest they attracted from fellow Islanders.

He now posts some of his work on a Facebook page and takes requests from other Islanders free of charge.

MacDonald says he does it because he enjoys both the process and the conversations he has with people about the history and connections behind the photos.

"I start getting comments from people all over the place, 'Wow, that person on the left is my grandfather,' and all this. So I just started to get right into it," MacDonald said.

"You enlarge it. And then the little cracks that shouldn't be there, you just blend them all together ... You can really do amazing things with Photoshop."

Black and white photo of old city street, showing a church with steeple, a sailing ship on a cradle and various buildings.
Looking up Great George Street from the Charlottetown waterfront in 1864. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)

Most of the pictures he works with are photos from the P.E.I. Public Archives and internet websites, including a lot from A.W. Mitchell, an amateur photographer who captured life in P.E.I. near the turn of the 20th century. He also works with the photos people submit to him.

He said as long as the picture isn't damaged beyond his capabilities, he'll take any requests.

"If you get a picture that's not too bad, [it] takes half an hour to an hour to fix," he said. "If it's too far gone. I just say, 'Sorry. I can't do anything with it.' But some of them, they say ... 'This is the only known picture of my grandfather. He was a shy guy,' [I take] extra time to get that restored."

MacDonald said he doesn't have any real favourites and after completing work on a photo, he usually quickly moves on to the next. That said, here is a selection of some photographs that he is particularly fond of and has recently restored.

The original photos were from the P.E.I. Public Archives and Records Office unless otherwise noted.

Black and white photo of three people standing in a daisy field: A little boy and a little girl with a young woman - possibly their mother or older sister.
Posing for the camera in a daisy field outside Charlottetown in 1903. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)
Black and white photo of 8 children all bundled up and piled onto a toboggan on a snowy hillside.
A group of children all set to slide down a hill in Heatherdale in 1933. The photo was from MacDonald's father, Preston. He's sitting third from the right. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)
A 1950s style white sedan going down a country road.
A car heading towards New Glasgow, P.E.I. in 1958. Photo taken by Mike Gaudet and restored by MacDonald. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)
Black and white photo of a rural community.
Cavendish in 1947. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)
Three boys holding hands in a yard in front of small farmyard buildings. They are accompanied by a dog.
A glimpse of life in 1900 in rural P.E.I. (Submitted by Earle MacDonald)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arturo Chang

Reporter

Arturo Chang is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. Before that, he worked for CBC P.E.I. and BNN Bloomberg. You can reach him at arturo.chang@cbc.ca.

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