The Health Works

@StuartHumphryes Sorry you’ve been poorly. Hope you get better soon. X

Sorry I've not had much of an online presence recently - I've battled some health issues. But I thought you may like to know that my publisher is having a Spring Sale for UK & US customers and selling my book at half price - £22.50 (instead of £45). uk.gestalten.com/products/the-c…

@StuartHumphryes So sorry you’ve been poorly. You’ll never lose insignificant me as a follower! Your amazing work was a highlight during lockdown and beyond! Get better doing 🤩

Sorry for the unproductive week: Still battling health issues, but I'm brighter today & back on my feet. I've lost a couple of thousand followers during my absence - I guess some lose interest if they don't have a constant supply of tweets. So thanks to those who are more patient

@StuartHumphryes So sorry to hear this. Have you got my lemon and garlic recipe from last time or shall I send it again? Get better soon Stuart. 🥰

Not been too great this week, hence my absence from the site. Bear with me, you lovely, patient people and I shall arise like a phoenix from the ashes of my illness. It just may take me a day or two xxxxx ♥️

@StuartHumphryes I feel for you. Sometimes I want to just take a hammer to the computer! 😫 Good luck. We miss your posts! No pressure! 😆

A few technical hitches this week, which have limited my ability to furnish you with lovely things. Normal Service will be resumed shortly, once I throw my computer out of the window.

@RevRichardColes Teaspoon of sugar is what the Venetians taught me decades ago when I was an au pair there.

@kathytre @StuartHumphryes @MTPenna @MePasserby We moved to a tiny village in Norfolk on the day of lockdown coincidentally. Near the sea and it’s beautiful. Never thought I’d be a country gall after a childhood in the jungle of Ghana and then London city life. We love it. Loads of walks and bike rides and new friends. Xx

A precious window through time to 1906. I've cleaned & enhanced for you this very early autochrome, taken in colour 118 years ago by the Lumiere brothers, utilising their own colour photographic process a full year before it became publicly available. The two little girls are their nieces, Dette and Louloune. This is an early example of colour photography and hasn't been colourised.

@StuartHumphryes @JaideBlue Hilarious! Can you tell I’ve nothing better to do at 6.30am than read your tweet threads!

@JaideBlue You just like to flutter those lil' eye-lashes don't you! But you made me curious, so I just tried it and, yah-boo sucks to blinky, I did 65 seconds easily first time. I'm obviously some kind of god.

This is an enhancement of the earliest known portrait of a woman. It is Dorothy Catherine Draper photographed in 1839/40 - an artist, educator and chemist, who is also notable for being the subject of the earliest known US daguerreotype photograph. I have cleaned, enhanced and polished this very early photo, taken by her brother John, who took the photo in natural sunlight, in his Washington Square studio at New York University. Dorothy had to sit without blinking for the 65-second exposure with her face dusted with white flour to enhance the contrast!

@StuartHumphryes @cidersleuth @Steve44904662 You’ll be inundated. Might need to leave the day job!

@cidersleuth @Steve44904662 I can't at the moment, I'm afraid. But I hope to have more flexibility and time in the Autumn, and may well tweet a invitation for commissions then. 👍

@StuartHumphryes @niche_t_ What a great article Stuart. Hope it gets to promote your book. You deserve it. I tell all my friends about you. 🤩

Click the photo-link below to read a new interview & article about my photo enhancement work, just uploaded today on vice. com. Written by the very kind @niche_t_ vice.com/en/article/4a3…

@StuartHumphryes Omg that’s so clever. It made me cry seeing him so alive and as if moving and looking at us. Thank you Stuart.

Bringing a Victorian child back to life.... Dr Barnardo's opend its first home for orphaned & homelss children in 1870. From their archive comes this photo of 16-year-old James Alex Lindsey who, after his mother's death, found himself penniless on the streets of London in 1887. Barnardos housed & enrolled him in their Youth Labour Workhouse to earn enough money to pay for passage back to his father in Jamaica. I have cleaned & enhanced his portrait, to return a little humanity back into the faded photo. I have then employed some very clever photo animation software to bring the young lad back to life. He seems to be peering out of his Victorian photograph at the strangeness of our modern morld, in a most captivating and affecting way...

@StuartHumphryes Yes. Yes. Yes!

Just testing whether or not a transisition gif will work on twitter/X, to show the "before & after" comparison of a cleaned-up autochrome. This one is from 1910. Not sure what the quality will look like, but if it works, it's an interesting option I may utilise in the future....

@StuartHumphryes You’re my favourite Twitter account. Love what you do. 🤩👍👏🏼

People sometimes imagine that I'm a professional photo restorer, but I'm not at all. I actually work for the local council. There's also an assumption that I have lots of fancy computers & high-end software, but I just use Adobe Photoshop 7 which is 22 years-old. I'm not an expert, or a professional, this is just a little hobby in my evenings to amuse you. It doesn't pay any bills, but it does make me happy. I hope it make you happy too.

@islingtonscot @RevRichardColes Oh wow. Sarah Jane. I forgot she sang with you guys. I have a vivid memory of walking round Bonnington Square (a south London squatters haven) at midnight with her and our friends, Loose Tubes, all making a wonderful sound, singing our heads off. This was over 40 years ago!

@RevRichardColes and heres you giving it laldie on countdown,,,,,,awesome!!youtube.com/watch?v=kb2mvE…

@StuartHumphryes So sorry to hear this Stuart. Hope you improve soon. We miss you! 🤩

Sorry I've not been around to delight you with enhanced photography this week, but I've been mostly confined to my bed for the last 4 days. And I think I've slept 90 hours of that! I've had a pretty major relapse of long-term health issues and haven't been able to work on my computer. But do please bear with me, I'll be back online soon, I am sure. See you soon xxx ♥️

@deathtospinach You’re blooming brilliant. How can these t**ts not understand your fabulous humour, wit and sarcasm! 😆

Money is tight at the moment and I’ve been worried about my energy bill I’m not worried any more! I’m going to be a sugar baby for this nice Scottish man and earn $5,000 a week He seems really lovely and I just can’t believe my good fortune 🎉

@StuartHumphryes Vivid gorgeousness as always. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I don't routinely post "before & after" comparisons of my work, but I'm increasingly aware people enjoy seeing what's been done to revitalise the photos. So here are some examples. None have had any new colour painted on to them, it is all just cleaning & boosting what was there.

@StuartHumphryes Wow. That’s amazingly surreal. Thanks for sharing your magic as usual Stuart. History and art all rolled into one. My favourite Twitter account of all time! 👍🤩

@StuartHumphryes Absolutely amazing. Not sure the couple at the end were dressed for haymaking! Maybe a bit of sowing of wild oats though! 🤣

Filmed 116 years ago, during ther Autumn harvest of 1908, this remarkable & rare kinemacolor film records the work of Edwardian farmers reaping their crops, with a little love-interest thrown in at the end. A remarkable window into the past, in real colour (not colourised).

@StuartHumphryes You’re a blooming genius! 🤩👏🏼

An off topic post to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of 'Doctor Who' today! Travel back 30 years and a very young BabelColour was on a TV quiz answering quickfire questions for Mike Reid on his specialist subject, Doctor Who! All in a snazzy 90's waistcoat! #DoctorWhoDay #DrWho60