After the flood

“There’s not much left of my wedding album. Actually there’s not much left of my life,” says a woman who also lost her mother in the devastating floods that hit Belgium last July. 

The damage caused by the deluge was enormous: at least 38 people lost their lives in the Wallonia region in Belgium, when excessive rains caused the banks of the Vesdre, Ourthe and Meuse rivers to burst. Literally everything was washed away: 224,000 houses destroyed, 12,000 cars damaged, and countless pieces of furniture and material goods. The region is still suffering from this flood trauma.

Thousands of photos were also damaged and though they don't represent a lot of financial value, but their emotional value is enormous. The memories linked to them are priceless, as one victim said, "when you lose everything, you hang onto memories. And photos keep those memories alive." 

With the support of Canon, the ReStory project was created in collaboration with Brussels agency Happiness and aims to restore as many photos as possible. This touching film, directed by Simon Schuuman, reveals the stories of those whose precious photos were restored. 

The project was a joint initiative between Canon, the Object Care laboratory and numerous volunteer digital retouchers. The photographs are restored to their original state as far as possible, using a drying and smoothing process, followed by manual digital corrections. All applications to restore pictures can be done at www.restory.photo.