Minnie Ritchie, 1910

So, I have an old black and white photo of local woman Minnie Ritchie, which was taken in 1910. Shared to me by Alex Bowie, it’s a photo I like. Not just because it’s unusually happy with a rare smile for the era, but it exudes charm, warmth and of course she’s a Blantyre woman! It summarises nicely an Edwardian young woman’s style and is far removed from the frills and blackness of the Victorian era. I can’t also help but also feel the innocence and unknowing about what war horrors were about to come during the mid 1910’s just a few years later.

Anyways, I wanted to show what’s now possible with an old photo. The first step was to colour it, which worked very well, despite the photo being 115 years old. Sharpening it, the colours popped, including the beautiful flower basket.

Then running it through AI software, we can incredibly create a very short video animation, just a few seconds long. Using a prompt which turns her smile into a spontaneous laugh. It’s unknown how ‘true’ this is to the appearance of Minnie herself as the image moves. Technology is changing fast in the mid 2020’s. 115 years ago, Minnie would never have been able to imagine that somebody all these years later who now lives over her old garden wall would be making her still image, move!