Mount Pleasant vineyard restores photos of celebrated winemaker
The popular winery were very pleased to unveil and share with Over60 a digitally colourised collection of photographs of Maurice O’Shea and the Mount Pleasant winery from the 1950s.
This series of original black-and-white photographs was taken by Max Dupain – one of Australia’s most celebrated photographers. Max was born in Sydney in 1911 and his illustrious career continued up until just before his passing in 1992.
His photographs of Maurice O’Shea and the Mount Pleasant winery have become synonymous with the great Hunter Valley winemaker and his winery, capturing an amazing spectrum of subjects, from the processes of winemaking to beautiful landscapes and even some more personal family shots.
The digital colourisation technique that was used to restore Max’s original photos has become an increasingly popular way to bring old images back to life, reminding us that life was lived in colour back then and helping to make the characters more relatable.
Senior winemaker at Mount Pleasant, Adrian Sparks, says that the digitally colourised photographs shine a new light on some classic photographs that capture the winery in its formative years.
“We have grown to love the timeless black and white photographs as much as the wines of O’Shea’s times. They are a classic depiction of the history of our winery and this celebrated figure of Australian winemaking. Now technology has given us the opportunity to be able to see into the past through his eyes, which is amazing resource to have.”
The updated photographs were made by digital artist Alex Kemp. In an amazing insight to this process, you can actually view Alex’s process of digitally colourising the images in the video below.