I’ve used Photoshop a fair amount, and I’ve edited plenty of photos, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat down and fully re-touched a destroyed photo. This was time.

This man is a refugee from Iraq. He fled his country after intense persecution and torture to both him and his family. Part of that torture was destroying this traditional photograph as psychological torture. The original, tattered and really quite meaningless, was sent to me in a small file from a scan of the 5×7. I reproduced it as an 8×10 and was surprised and the quality when I upsized it.

I could have kept going for a long time to keep trying to get it right, but this served its purpose. When I presented this to Alaa, he pointed to his chest where his heart might be, and said in broken english, “this feels good”.

It felt good for me too. Just for a little bit of fun and a few giggles, I kept going and made the following stylized version. Probably not what he was looking for, so I presented him the simple re-touched version. I kinda like this though. (and yes, that IS his real name).

Stylized version