Grandma's life, rebuilt from a shoebox of photos
Clara and Antoine scanned the photos in their grandmother Suzanne's shoebox and put each one on the day it was taken. Sixty years of a life, in order, that the whole family can add to.
Suzanne was born in 1941. A primary-school teacher for forty years, married to Henri, a house by the sea in Brittany: her life fitted in a shoebox of prints, many dated on the back, many not.
For her eightieth birthday, her grandchildren Clara and Antoine scanned the box and created the moments one by one, on the dates of the photos — a moment can be dated 1963 as easily as yesterday. They shared the timeline with the whole family, and the comments did the rest: names, places, stories nobody had ever written down.
Suzanne's timeline
15 Sept 1959
Teacher training college
Rennes
TeachingContacts only1 photo2 Sept 1974 – 2 Jul 1999
Teaching at the village school
Plouharnel
TeachingContacts only1 photo20 Sept 2001
Retirement trip to Québec
Québec
SuzanneContacts only1 photo
Dated 1963
Marrying Henri
15 Jun 1963
QuimperContacts onlyThe wedding photo had a date on the back: 15 June 1963. Clara created the moment on that day, attached the two scanned prints and gave it the highest Vybz. On the timeline it sits exactly where it belongs, sixty years back.
Then the family took over. Martine, Suzanne's daughter, named the people in the background; a cousin recognised the church. Each comment adds what the photo could not say.
3 comments
Martine
The little girl on the left is Aunt Yvette, who was meant to carry the rings and lost one.
Antoine
I never knew Grandpa had a moustache.
Clara
Grandma says he shaved it off the week after. She had asked him to.
Fifty summers in one place
The house by the sea
1 Jul 1972
LocmariaquerContacts onlyThe house by the sea has a life line of its own: the purchase in 1972, then fifty summers of photos. For the boxes of slides, Antoine used batch import to upload them all at once, then dated each moment from what was written on the slide frames.
Batch import is part of the Pro plan. The photos with no date at all were placed by hand, the year guessed from the cars and the haircuts.
1 comment
Clara
Every summer, the same photo in front of the same door. You can watch us grow up.
Her birthday, every year
Suzanne's 80th birthday80
9 Apr 2021
The house by the seaContacts onlySuzanne's eightieth birthday is the most recent moment, and the most crowded: everybody was there, and everybody added their photos. It is a Birthday moment, so her age shows on it, and next year's birthday will come round on its own.
Suzanne does not use Vybz herself. Clara shows her the timeline on a tablet every Sunday, and writes what she remembers into the comments.
1 comment
Antoine
Grandma blew out all eight candles in one go. We counted.
How they set it up
Three life lines: Suzanne's own, her years as a teacher, and the house by the sea.
Every scanned photo placed on its date, even the oldest: a moment can be dated as far back as it needs to be.
The boxes of slides uploaded in one go with batch import (Pro plan).
The timeline shared with the family, who add names, places and stories in the comments.
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More examples
This is an example: the people, the moments and the comments are invented, and the pictures are drawings.