An experimental photographer, filmmaker, and YouTuber based in Paris, Mathieu Stern, made an amazing discovery the other day. He found a time capsule in his family home basement. The chest was about 120 years old and it contained a number of memorabilia that a girl of that time wanted to remain untouched by time.

In the time capsule, Stern found in the old piece of furniture, there were cut-outs of a girl, flowers and a dog, an old coin, a sea shell, what looked like an old watch, a pen, and an envelope.

Now, the envelope was the most important discovery, since it contained glass plate negatives of photos taken at the time. Unlike what one might have expected, they were not family photos or photos of the girl- no. They were pet photos.

So, Stern decided to bring life back to those photos by using whatever tools he had on hand.

For this project he used Cyanotype. First, he dripped a little cyanotype (a mixture of parts A and B) in a container and mixed them together using a sponge-brush. He then brushed the photo paper with it and put it in a special frame along with the glass plate negative. He then left it under a UV lamp for some time and then dipped the photo in water. Finally, he drizzled some hydrogen peroxide on it, and hung it to dry.

That was it, he now had revealed the first photo. It was a beautiful cat sitting in the garden of a house. Then, it was time for the second photo. Maybe that one was a family photo?

No, after repeating the same procedure as before, Stern had developed the second pet picture. In this one, there were three pets: the cat of the previous photo, what looked like a small kitten, and a dog.

Once the man had developed the two photos, he framed them and decorated his home with them- a memory of long ago. But, unlike what most people would have done, he didn’t keep the glass plates to himself. He put them back in the time capsule and returned the whole thing to the drawer of the old kitchen hutch so that future generations can find them, too.

Although he didn’t add anything to that time capsule, we certainly hope that he makes a new time capsule where he can put modern stuff and photos so that they can impress someone else in 100 years’ time.

However, Stern’s work with the photos didn’t stop there. He proceeded with the colorization of the two photos he developed and posted the results on Instagram. The outcome is really awesome!

The video of Stern developing the photos has gone viral with more than 500K views in a couple of weeks. He has also received hundreds of comments praising his good work, while also pointing out that the video was so sweet it made them cry.

You can watch the process of the revival of the photos in the video below.

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Source: The Dodo, Mathieu Stern