TEDGlobal 2012
Becci Manson: (Re)touching lives through photos
Becci Manson: Dodirivanje života kroz retuširanje slika
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Nakon potresa i tsunamija u Japanu 2011. godine, među ruševinama nalazile su se izgubljene i oštećene fotografije obitelji i voljenih osoba. Retušerka fotografija Becci Manson, zajedno s lokalnim volonterima i kolegama iz cijelog svijeta koje je regrutirala preko interneta, pomagala je pri njihovom čišćenju i popravljanju, vraćajući tako uspomene njihovim vlasnicima.
Becci Manson - Photo Retoucher
After the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Becci Manson and her volunteer colleagues cleaned and restored hundreds of damaged photos. Full bio
After the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Becci Manson and her volunteer colleagues cleaned and restored hundreds of damaged photos. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:17
Before March, 2011, I was a photographic retoucher
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Prije ožujka 2011., bavila sam se retuširanjem fotografija
00:21
based in New York City.
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u New Yorku.
00:24
We're pale, gray creatures.
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Mi smo blijeda, siva bića.
00:26
We hide in dark, windowless rooms,
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Skrivamo se u mraku, prostorijama bez prozora
00:28
and generally avoid sunlight.
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i općenito izbjegavamo sunce.
00:30
We make skinny models skinnier, perfect skin more perfect,
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Mršave modele činimo još mršavijima,
savršenu kožu savršenijom,
savršenu kožu savršenijom,
00:34
and the impossible possible,
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a nemoguće činimo mogućim.
00:36
and we get criticized in the press all the time,
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Stalno nas kritiziraju u medijima,
00:40
but some of us are actually talented artists
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ali neki od nas zaista su nadareni umjetnici
00:44
with years of experience
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s godinama iskustva,
00:46
and a real appreciation for images and photography.
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i zbilja cijene slike i fotografije.
00:50
On March 11, 2011, I watched from home, as the rest
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11. ožujka 2011., iz svog doma gledala sam,
00:55
of the world did, as the tragic events unfolded in Japan.
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kao i ostatak svijeta, tragične događaje
koji su se odvijali u Japanu.
koji su se odvijali u Japanu.
00:59
Soon after, an organization I volunteer with,
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Ubrzo nakon toga, organizacija u kojoj volontiram,
01:01
All Hands Volunteers, were on the ground, within days,
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All Hands Volunteers, bila je
na terenu u roku nekoliko dana,
na terenu u roku nekoliko dana,
01:05
working as part of the response efforts.
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i radila u sklopu akcija za pomoć.
01:08
I, along with hundreds of other volunteers,
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Ja sam, kao i stotine drugih volontera,
01:10
knew we couldn't just sit at home,
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znala da ne možemo samo sjediti doma
01:12
so I decided to join them for three weeks.
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pa sam odlučila pridružiti im se na tri tjedna.
01:15
On May the 13th, I made my way to the town of Ōfunato.
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13. svibnja stigla sam u grad Ōfunato.
01:19
It's a small fishing town in Iwate Prefecture,
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To je ribarski gradić u prefekturi Iwate,
01:23
about 50,000 people,
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s 50-ak tisuća stanovnika,
01:25
one of the first that was hit by the wave.
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jedan od prvih koje je pogodio val.
01:28
The waters here have been recorded at reaching
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Zabilježeno je da je razina vode dosegla
01:31
over 24 meters in height,
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više od 24 metra visine
01:33
and traveled over two miles inland.
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i putovala preko 3 km u unutrašnjost.
01:35
As you can imagine, the town had been devastated.
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Kao što pretpostavljate, grad je bio razoren.
01:39
We pulled debris from canals and ditches.
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Čistili smo naplavine iz kanala i jaraka.
01:41
We cleaned schools. We de-mudded and gutted homes
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Čistili smo škole. Čistili smo domove od blata i praznili ih
01:45
ready for renovation and rehabilitation.
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kako bi bili spremni za renovaciju i obnovu.
01:47
We cleared tons and tons of stinking, rotting fish carcasses
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Uklonili smo tone smrdljivih, trulih ribljih lešina
01:52
from the local fish processing plant.
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iz lokalne tvornice za preradu ribe.
01:54
We got dirty, and we loved it.
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Zaprljali smo se i to nam se sviđalo.
01:57
For weeks, all the volunteers and locals alike
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Tjednima su volonteri i mještani
02:00
had been finding similar things.
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pronalazili slične stvari.
02:03
They'd been finding photos and photo albums
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Nalazili su fotografije i albume,
02:06
and cameras and SD cards.
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kamere i SD kartice.
02:08
And everyone was doing the same.
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Svi su radili isto.
02:09
They were collecting them up, and handing them in to
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Skupljali su ih i predavali na razna mjesta
02:12
various places around the different towns for safekeeping.
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diljem gradova na čuvanje.
02:15
Now, it wasn't until this point that I realized
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Do tog trena nisam shvaćala
02:18
that these photos were such a huge part
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da su te fotografije tako velik dio
02:21
of the personal loss these people had felt.
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osobnog gubitka koji su ljudi osjećali.
02:24
As they had run from the wave, and for their lives,
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Kako su bježali od vala, spašavajući svoj život,
02:27
absolutely everything they had,
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baš sve što su imali,
02:29
everything had to be left behind.
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sve su morali ostaviti za sobom.
02:32
At the end of my first week there, I found myself
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Krajem mog prvog tjedna ovdje,
02:34
helping out in an evacuation center in the town.
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pomagala sam u evakuacijskom centru u gradu.
02:37
I was helping clean the onsen, the communal onsen,
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Pomagala sam čistiti onsen, gradske terme,
02:41
the huge giant bathtubs.
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ogromne kade.
02:43
This happened to also be a place in the town where
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To je ujedno bilo i mjesto u gradu
02:45
the evacuation center was collecting the photos.
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na kojem je evakuacijski centar skupljao fotografije.
02:48
This is where people were handing them in,
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Ovdje ljudi su ih predavali
02:50
and I was honored that day that they actually trusted me
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i bila sam počašćena što su mi povjerili
02:53
to help them start hand-cleaning them.
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pomaganje oko ručnog čišćenja fotografija.
02:56
Now, it was emotional and it was inspiring,
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Bilo je emotivno i nadahnulo me.
02:59
and I've always heard about thinking outside the box,
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I prije sam čula za izraz "misliti izvan okvira",
03:02
but it wasn't until I had actually gotten outside of my box
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ali tek kad sam izišla iz svojih okvira,
03:06
that something happened.
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nešto se dogodilo.
03:08
As I looked through the photos, there were some
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Kako sam pregledavala fotografije,
03:10
were over a hundred years old,
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od kojih su neke bile i starije od 100 godina,
03:12
some still in the envelope from the processing lab,
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neke još u omotnicama s razvijanja,
03:16
I couldn't help but think as a retoucher
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nisam mogla ne pomisliti da kao retušer
03:18
that I could fix that tear and mend that scratch,
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mogu popraviti ovu poderotinu ili ogrebotinu,
03:20
and I knew hundreds of people who could do the same.
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a znala sam i stotine ljudi koji bi mogli učiniti isto.
03:24
So that evening, I just reached out on Facebook
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Te večeri otišla sam na Facebook
03:27
and asked a few of them, and by morning
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i pitala nekoliko njih za pomoć. Do jutra je
03:29
the response had been so overwhelming and so positive,
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odaziv bio toliko velik i pozitivan
03:32
I knew we had to give it a go.
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da sam znala da moram pokušati.
03:34
So we started retouching photos.
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Tako smo počeli retuširati fotografije.
03:37
This was the very first.
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Ovo je bila prva.
03:40
Not terribly damaged, but where the water had caused
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Nije odviše oštećena, no voda je promijenila
03:45
that discoloration on the girl's face
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boju na djevojčičinom licu
03:47
had to be repaired with such accuracy and delicacy.
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te se to moralo ispraviti s velikom preciznošću i osjetljivošću.
03:50
Otherwise, that little girl isn't going to look
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Inače ta djevojčica više ne bi izgledala
03:53
like that little girl anymore, and surely that's as tragic
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kao ta djevojčica, što bi bilo tragično
03:55
as having the photo damaged.
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koliko i oštećenje fotografije.
03:59
(Applause)
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(Pljesak)
04:05
Over time, more photos came in, thankfully,
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S vremenom je stiglo još fotografija
04:08
and more retouchers were needed,
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i trebali smo više retušera
04:12
and so I reached out again on Facebook and LinkedIn,
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pa sam opet otišla na Facebook i LinkedIn
04:15
and within five days, 80 people wanted to help
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i kroz 5 dana pomoć je ponudilo
04:18
from 12 different countries.
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80 ljudi iz 12 zemalja.
04:20
Within two weeks, I had 150 people
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U dva se tjedna 150 ljudi
04:22
wanting to join in.
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željelo priključiti.
04:24
Within Japan, by July, we'd branched out
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Do srpnja smo se u Japanu proširili
04:27
to the neighboring town of Rikuzentakata,
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do susjednog grada Rikuzentakate
04:29
further north to a town called Yamada.
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i sjevernije do grada Yamade.
04:32
Once a week, we would set up our scanning equipment
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Jednom tjedno postavili bismo svoju opremu za skeniranje
04:35
in the temporary photo libraries that had been set up,
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u privremenim pohranama fotografija,
04:37
where people were reclaiming their photos.
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gdje su ljudi preuzimali svoje fotografije.
04:40
The older ladies sometimes hadn't seen a scanner before,
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Neke starije gospođe nikad nisu vidjele skener,
04:43
but within 10 minutes of them finding their lost photo,
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ali u roku 10 minuta nakon pronalaska
svoje izgubljene fotografije,
svoje izgubljene fotografije,
04:47
they could give it to us, have it scanned,
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mogle su nam je dati, mi bismo je skenirali,
04:49
uploaded to a cloud server, it would be downloaded
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uploadali na cloud server, a tada bi je downloadao
04:51
by a gaijin, a stranger,
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gaijin, stranac,
04:54
somewhere on the other side of the globe,
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negdje na drugoj strani svijeta
04:56
and it'd start being fixed.
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i počeo je popravljati.
04:58
The time it took, however, to get it back
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Potpuno je druga priča vrijeme
05:02
is a completely different story,
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za koje je slika vraćena,
05:04
and it depended obviously on the damage involved.
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a ovisilo je, naravno, o šteti na fotografiji.
05:06
It could take an hour. It could take weeks.
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Moglo je trajati sat vremena, ali i tjednima
05:08
It could take months.
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ili mjesecima.
05:10
The kimono in this shot pretty much had to be hand-drawn,
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Kimono na ovoj snimci većinom se morao ručno nacrtati,
05:14
or pieced together, picking out the remaining parts of color
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ili spojiti zajedno, birajući preostale dijelove boje
05:18
and detail that the water hadn't damaged.
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i detalje koje voda nije oštetila.
05:20
It was very time-consuming.
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Trebalo je mnogo vremena.
05:23
Now, all these photos had been damaged by water,
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Sve ove fotografije oštetila je voda,
05:26
submerged in salt water, covered in bacteria,
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bile su uronjene u slanu vodu, prekrivene bakterijama,
05:29
in sewage, sometimes even in oil, all of which over time
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kanalizacijskom vodom, ponekad čak i uljem, a sve to
05:32
is going to continue to damage them,
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i dalje će ih oštećivati
05:34
so hand-cleaning them was a huge part of the project.
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pa je ručno čišćenje bilo ogroman dio projekta.
05:37
We couldn't retouch the photo unless it was cleaned,
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Nismo mogli retuširati fotografiju ako nije očišćena,
05:40
dry and reclaimed.
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suha i ako vlasnik nije pronađen.
05:43
Now, we were lucky with our hand-cleaning.
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Imali smo sreće s ručnim čišćenjem.
05:46
We had an amazing local woman who guided us.
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Vodila nas je jedna čudesna mještanka.
05:49
It's very easy to do more damage to those damaged photos.
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Vrlo je lako još više oštetiti oštećene fotografije.
05:53
As my team leader Wynne once said,
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Kako je Wynne, voditeljica mog tima, jednom rekla,
05:55
it's like doing a tattoo on someone.
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to je poput tetoviranja.
05:57
You don't get a chance to mess it up.
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Ne smijete pogriješiti.
06:01
The lady who brought us these photos was lucky,
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Žena koja nam je donijela ove fotografije imala je sreće,
06:04
as far as the photos go.
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što se tiče fotografija.
06:06
She had started hand-cleaning them herself and stopped
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Počela ih je sama ručno čistiti i stala je
06:08
when she realized she was doing more damage.
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kad je shvatila da ih još više uništava.
06:11
She also had duplicates.
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Imala je duplikate.
06:13
Areas like her husband and her face, which otherwise
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Područja poput njenog muža i njenog lica,
06:16
would have been completely impossible to fix,
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koja bi inače bilo nemoguće popraviti,
06:18
we could just put them together in one good photo,
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jednostavno smo spojili u jednu dobru fotografiju
06:21
and remake the whole photo.
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i iznova načinili cijelu fotografiju.
06:23
When she collected the photos from us,
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Kad je preuzela slike,
06:26
she shared a bit of her story with us.
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ispričala nam je dio svoje priče.
06:28
Her photos were found by her husband's colleagues
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Njezine fotografije pronašle su kolege njezinog muža
06:31
at a local fire department in the debris
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u mjesnom vatrogasnom domu među naplavinama
06:33
a long way from where the home had once stood,
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daleko od mjesta gdje je nekad bio njihov dom
06:36
and they'd recognized him.
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i prepoznali su ga.
06:39
The day of the tsunami, he'd actually been in charge
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Na dan tsunamija, on je bio zadužen
06:41
of making sure the tsunami gates were closed.
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osigurati da su brane za tsunami zatvorene.
06:43
He had to go towards the water as the sirens sounded.
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Morao je ići prema vodi kad su se sirene oglasile.
06:47
Her two little boys, not so little anymore, but her two boys
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Njezina dva sinčića, koja više nisu tako mala,
06:50
were both at school, separate schools.
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bila su u školi, u dvije različite škole.
06:52
One of them got caught up in the water.
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Jednog od njih sustigla je voda.
06:55
It took her a week to find them all again
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Trebalo joj je tjedan dana kako bi ih sve pronašla
06:57
and find out that they had all survived.
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i saznala da su svi preživjeli.
06:59
The day I gave her the photos also happened to be
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Onog dana kad sam joj predala slike ujedno je bio
07:02
her youngest son's 14th birthday.
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i 14. rođendan njenog mlađeg sina.
07:06
For her, despite all of this, those photos
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Unatoč svemu, za nju su te fotografije
07:10
were the perfect gift back to him,
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bile savršen dar za njega,
07:12
something he could look at again, something he remembered from before
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nešto što je mogao gledati,
nešto čega se mogao sjećati otprije,
nešto čega se mogao sjećati otprije,
07:15
that wasn't still scarred from that day in March
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što nije imalo ožiljke od onog dana u ožujku
07:20
when absolutely everything else in his life had changed
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kad se baš sve ostalo u njegovom životu promijenilo
07:23
or been destroyed.
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ili je bilo uništeno.
07:27
After six months in Japan,
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Nakon šest mjeseci u Japanu
07:29
1,100 volunteers had passed through All Hands,
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1100 volontera izmijenilo se kroz All Hands.
07:32
hundreds of whom had helped us hand-clean
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Stotine njih pomoglo nam je ručno očistiti
07:34
over 135,000 photographs,
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preko 135.000 fotografija,
07:37
the large majority — (Applause) —
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od kojih je velika većina -- (Pljesak) --
07:43
a large majority of which did actually find their home again,
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od kojih je velika većina opet pronašla svoj dom.
07:46
importantly.
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a to je važno.
07:49
Over five hundred volunteers around the globe
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Više od 500 volontera iz cijelog svijeta
07:52
helped us get 90 families hundreds of photographs back,
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pomoglo nam je vratiti stotine fotografija 90 obitelji,
07:57
fully restored and retouched.
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potpuno obnovljene i retuširane.
07:59
During this time, we hadn't really spent more than
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Tijekom tog razdoblja, nismo potrošili
08:01
about a thousand dollars in equipment and materials,
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više od 1000 dolara na opremu i materijale,
08:04
most of which was printer inks.
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većinom na tintu za printere.
08:08
We take photos constantly.
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Stalno stvaramo fotografije.
08:10
A photo is a reminder of someone or something,
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Fotografija je podsjetnik na nekoga ili nešto,
08:13
a place, a relationship, a loved one.
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na mjesto, vezu, voljenu osobu.
08:16
They're our memory-keepers and our histories,
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One su čuvari naših sjećanja i naše povijesti,
08:18
the last thing we would grab
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zadnja stvar koju bismo zgrabili
08:21
and the first thing you'd go back to look for.
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i prva stvar koju se vraćamo potražiti.
08:24
That's all this project was about,
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To je bila poanta našeg projekta:
08:26
about restoring those little bits of humanity,
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obnavljanje tih komadića ljudskosti,
08:29
giving someone that connection back.
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vraćanje te veze ljudima.
08:31
When a photo like this can be returned to someone like this,
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Kad ovakvu fotografiju nekome možemo vratiti ovakvu,
08:37
it makes a huge difference
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to mnogo znači
08:39
in the lives of the person receiving it.
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u životu osobe koja je prima.
08:42
The project's also made a big difference in the lives of the retouchers.
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Projekt je ostavio traga i u životima retušera.
08:46
For some of them, it's given them a connection
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Nekima od njih dao je vezu
08:49
to something bigger, giving something back,
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s nečim većim, vraćanjem natrag,
08:51
using their talents on something
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korištenjem njihovih talenata za nešto drugo
08:53
other than skinny models and perfect skin.
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osim mršavih modela i savršene kože.
08:57
I would like to conclude by reading an email
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Za kraj bih pročitala e-mail
08:59
I got from one of them, Cindy,
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koji sam dobila od Cindy, jedne od retušera,
09:02
the day I finally got back from Japan after six months.
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na dan kad sam se napokon vratila
iz Japana nakon šest mjeseci.
iz Japana nakon šest mjeseci.
09:06
"As I worked, I couldn't help but think about the individuals
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"Kako sam radila, nisam mogla ne misliti o pojedinim ljudima
09:10
and the stories represented in the images.
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i pričama prikazanima na slikama.
09:13
One in particular, a photo of women of all ages,
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Jedna me posebno ganula --
fotografija sa ženama svih dobi,
fotografija sa ženama svih dobi,
09:17
from grandmother to little girl, gathered around a baby,
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od bake do djevojčice, okupljenima oko djeteta,
09:21
struck a chord, because a similar photo from my family,
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zato što slična fotografija moje obitelji,
09:24
my grandmother and mother, myself,
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moje bake, majke i mene,
09:27
and newborn daughter, hangs on our wall.
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novorođene kćeri, visi na našem zidu.
09:30
Across the globe, throughout the ages,
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Diljem svijeta, kroz razna razdoblja,
09:33
our basic needs are just the same, aren't they?"
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naše su osnovne potrebe iste, zar ne?"
09:37
Thank you. (Applause)
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Hvala. (Pljesak)
09:40
(Applause)
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(Pljesak)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Becci Manson - Photo RetoucherAfter the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Becci Manson and her volunteer colleagues cleaned and restored hundreds of damaged photos.
Why you should listen
Becci Manson flew to Tōhoku, Japan after the 2011 disaster, determined to help with cleanup and rebuilding.
As she writes: "During those 3 weeks of digging ditches and gutting homes I discovered vast amounts of photos that had been found and handed into evacuation centers. The photos were dirty, wet and homeless. As I spent my first day hand-cleaning them, I couldnt help but think how easy it would be for me, my colleagues and my friends to fix some of them. So we did."
She spent the next 6 months organizing a worldwide network of volunteer retouchers, restoring these photos and training local All Hands volunteer teams to hand-clean the photos handed in to local authorities. These teams have restored hundreds and hand-cleaned well over 100,000 photos.
Since the project in Tōhoku, Manson and her team has begun similar cleaning and retouching projects in Prattsville, NY after Hurricane Irene, and in Binghamton, NY after Tropical Storm Lee.
Becci Manson | Speaker | TED.com