Mom
















































Mary Crum Smith, Bridal Portrait, Miami, Florida, 1954 The above image is a scan of an 8 x 10 fiber print of my beloved mom Mary's bridal portrait that was on display in my parent's home. The scan was made almost fifty-five years to the day that the original image was printed. The print was in a table-top frame and wasn't under archival glass. Over the course of fifty-five years, her bridal portrait was on display in homes in Miami, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, a farm house with no air conditioning in Georgia, and in two different suburban homes in the Atlanta area. As a photographer who knows archival materials, I found the print to be in outstanding condition even after fifty-five years of continuous display in environments with extreme fluctuations in temperature and humidity with no protection from UV light. The photographer who created this image with a 4 x 5 camera over a half a century ago truly produced an heirloom that my family will treasure forever.