I’m Nick Harris, a photo restorer and colourizer at Photo Restoration Services. I take immense pride in my work and the preservation of memories for future generations. I’d love to share a recent project of mine, of colorized Victorian prisoner mugshots.
They’re fascinating, particularly the method of using a mirror to reveal the prisoners’ side profiles and hands all in a single photo. People are enamored by old photos and I believe these stories and historical photos really deserve to be seen.
Photos post-1890 utilize a shoulder mirror, cleverly positioned to capture the prisoners’ full face and profile in a single shot. They showed their hands to reveal any distinguishing characteristics such as tattoos, birthmarks or even missing fingers, like the unfortunate Joseph Wildsmith.
Cane comes alive in the below motion photo, giving a real engaging insight in moments leading up to his mugshot being taken.
James Carey
These colorized mugshots were part of a major exhibition for Barnsley Museums.
You can find more examples of my photo restoration and photo colorizing work on my website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
About the author: Nick Harris is a photo colorizer and restorer based in the UK.