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Hello!
Hi, My name is Claire.

You've probably seen me gawking at native plants on the El Prieto trail or stuffing my face at Tacos 210. I love living in Altadena.​ Like all of you, my world was turned upside down in the early hours of January 8. ​​

 

I happen to have a really weird, really specific hobby: I collect antique photos, track down the identity of the subjects, then return the photos to any living relatives I can find. 

 

When I started seeing neighbors post online about photos blown away from homes during the fire, I realized that – for the first and possibly only time – my hobby might be able to help someone in a time of need.

 

This is the best way I know how to help right now. If I can get even

one photo back to its owners, I'll consider this project a success.

HAVE QUEStions? HAPPY TO ANSWER.

Please see our submission page on ways to get the photo to us. I'm happy to take it off your hands and keep it safe until it finds its owner. If you prefer, I'm happy to leave the photo with you – I just ask that you submit a clean scan or snapshot, and place it in an archival envelope (which I'll provide) for safekeeping.

The physical copy will be returned to the owner. For photos in my possession, I will hand it over to them personally. For photos in the possession of someone else, I will coordinate a time for the owner and finder to meet for hand-off. We will not be mailing photos unless the owner has evacuated to a location out-of-state. We don't want to risk the photo getting lost (for a second time) in the mail. Since this project is in its infancy, I will be removing claimed photos from our website and social media pages out of respect for the owner's privacy. In the future, if owners consent, I plan on posting about each photo's reunification story.

As a hobby photo detective, I've had quite a bit of success returning antique photos (shoutout to the photo table at the PCC Flea Market!) to living relatives. That said, prior to this project I've only selected photos with easy-to-trace clues contained within. I'll do my best to track down the owners of these photos myself, but can't guarantee success. Which is why I'm also posting them in online forums, hopefully giving them an even better chance of finding their way home.

Not necessarily. Our community is currently scattered all over the map, and not everyone is coming back to Altadena frequently (if at all). Right now, while so many of our neighbors still find themselves far from home, folks have a likelier chance of finding their lost photo online than they do in a gallery. There's also the issue of safety. Environmental hazards still abound in Altadena. Until cleanup is complete, I don't want to encourage anyone to be there unless they absolutely have to be. When our town is safer and repopulated, I'll look into having photos displayed somewhere local for additional exposure. Until then, let's keep things virtual.

Please click on the photo, and at the bottom of the photo's page, click the button that says "claim photo." You'll be directed to an email form. Once we're in touch, I'll ask you to provide a secondary form of verification to prove that you are indeed who you say you are. Lots of outsiders are trying to insert themselves in our community's healing process, so I want to do everything I can to ensure photos don't go to someone without a valid claim.

Photos in my possession will be placed in archival envelopes and stored in a temperature-controlled storage space until they are claimed. I will not – at any point – dispose of unclaimed photos. I'm prepared to hang onto these photos for the rest of my life in the hopes that someday somebody will claim them – even if it's years from now,

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