4/365 'Janis and Lizete'

BEWARE, it's a longish post and some might not think it appropiate. Heartfelt apologies if that's the case as I would be horrified to think that I have  offended you.

 Well today I have been going through some old family photographs of which there are but few for various reasons. I'm not too sure why but the folder in Lightroom which contains them is a complete mess and needed sorting.

This photograph, originally in black and white, was taken in late 1957 in Latvia but recreated and colourised today in Adobe Photoshop 2023 by myself to see how effective it would be. Of course I don't know if the colours here are a true representation but I'm happy with the look of the photo. 

The photo is of my grandfather Janis and his partner Lizete. Unfortunately my grandmother Anna had passed away a few years before this.

It was probably still tough times then and of course the country was still under the yoke of Russian occupation as it had been since 1940 and would remain so until 1989. Sounds a familiar story today?

Unfortunately I never met my grandparents or Lizete and my father Raimonds never saw his parents again after 1944 when he was forcibly conscripted into the German army and then captured by American forces in 1945, eventually finding his way to England after the war ended. Like nearly all of his compatriots he never returned to Latvia as the certain outcome would have been death or deportation to Siberia as tens of thousands of Latvians were.

I'm sorry if it's a hard post to get through and it's not intended to be political as such. I'm quite aware that throughout history minority ethnic groups have suffered and that it is still happening today so Russia are not alone in this.

If you have managed to get this far then thank you. The extras are the original black and white photo before colourisation and then one of my father at Technical College in Ventspils, with classmates and teachers, a few weeks before the Germans came for them. He is on the back row fourth from the left as we look at it and he has a white shirt on and wearing a tie. He is 18 and a half years old.