PORTRAITS FROM THE PAST
Local Photographer Seeks Families of Subjects in Vintage Negatives

By Jim Evans

Ken Petsch has been a photographer for more than 30 years, so there isn’t much he hasn’t experienced in the world of photography. But even Petsch admits that his pending photographic project will be pretty challenging.You see, Petsch recently obtained some 40,000-60,000 vintage negatives from the estate of the late Anna Lowry of Ramona, who died last year at 94. He is contemplating a way to market fully-developed prints from the negatives on the Internet.

“Most of the negatives appear to be portrait-style photographs of military men and women from the late ’40s and early to late ’50s — probably from the Korean War era — with some weddings and family portraits in the mix,” explains Petsch.

Lowry’s late husband, George, a professional photographer owned and operated photography studios in San Diego for many years, and apparently amassed the collection.

“It seems that Mr. Lowry collected old negatives from other studios as they went out of business,” says Petsch, “and stored them in boxes in a darkroom behind his house. Some of the negatives came from such well-known studios in downtown San Diego as the U.S. Grant, Balboa, and Maxwell.”

George Lowry is pictured above at the right. Opposite page, one of thousands of portraits taken by Lowry of local servicemen.

Donna Zick, a long-time friend and neighbor of Lowry and executor of the estate, had the arduous task of sorting through Lowry’s personal effects and other belongings after she passed away last Spring. The negatives were about to be discarded. After all, what do you do with dozens of boxes containing thousands of old black and white negatives from who knows where that have been sitting in boxes for, perhaps, 40 to 50 years?

However, Petsch suggested to Zick that he might be able to salvage some of the history chronicled in the negatives by providing a service for the subjects and their families.

“Many of the subjects in the negatives are probably no longer with us,” says Petsch, “and their families probably don’t even know these negatives exist. It occurred to me that I could develop a few prints from the negatives as examples and post them in a special link on my company’s Website with a list of subjects portrayed in the negatives. Then, people could contact us if they recognized a friend or relative on the subject list, and we could send them thumbnails of the negatives from which they could order prints.”

According to Petsch, the negatives are organized in sleeves with 98 percent catalogued by last name and catalog number and there are even some hand-colored final images mixed in with the negatives.

“There are a few old addresses and phone numbers in some cases,” says Petsch, “but they may be obsolete by now, so we will be sorting through all of the information to eventually establish a data base from which we can attempt to contact people. “But,” he adds, “it might take months — even years — before we can establish a format and enter everything onto our website.”

Petsch, who lives in Santa Ysabel, is owner of the Creative Photo Center at Camera Exposure (www.camera exposure.com) located at 2703 Adams Ave in San Diego, a one-stop photography shop offering equipment sales, camera repair, photo processing, classes, camera rentals, rental darkrooms, and rental studios. Local residents who believe that his collection of negatives might include an image of a friend or relative should contact him at (619) 640-5300.

The proceeds from the sale of Lowry’s home will be donated to the Ramona Senior Center, according to Zick. Petsch’s efforts to reunite families with images of their loved ones will be a tribute to Lowry’s husband for recognizing the significance of preserving images from the past.