The Family Series — Jackie Durbha

My 91-year-old grandfather on my mom’s side gave the entire family a pretty unique gift for Christmas. We all sat in my grandparent’s living room and were handed a small black pouch that zipped open and kind of looked like a camera SD card bag. On the count of three, we opened the bags and found a small flash drive inside. My grandfather told us that over 17,000 files of family genealogy had been scanned and digitized onto this flash drive, dating all the way back to the early 1800s.

I’ve never considered myself a huge genealogy nerd, but I was pretty excited to see pictures and read the documents of my ancestors. As I began to look through the files, a project sprang to mind — to take the old film photos and incorporate bright colors within the picture.

I try to focus on color and shape in these designs. Some colors are warmer, some are cooler. Some shapes are more geometric while others are organic.

Maybe my grandparents might think it’s a little odd, but to me this vintage-pop-art series makes me feel somewhat connected to my ancestors who I never came to know.