Old photos come to life

Archive images as photo wallpaper

It is a trend to enlarge old photos, for example as photo wallpaper in a restaurant or business. With this you make a statement and bring atmosphere to the space. At Tachup they go very far in reproducing historical photos. The images are digitized, pixels are added and printing is done in the best quality.

"It is a specialty of ours to make reproductions of old photographs and postcards," says Tachup owner Martin Groenewege. "The quality arises particularly through digitization. Old photos are often small and sometimes damaged. It's quite a process to enlarge them properly." This is not done by simply scanning and enlarging the photos, but by photographing them to create a new photo. "You can't improve the quality of the photo itself, but you can look pixel by pixel to see if you can optimize it," Groenewege said.

Searching for the right images

Tachup goes to great lengths to find the right photos. Sometimes she goes to a municipal archive to find the right images. It can be a long search for the right picture and to get agreement with each other. "Today's technology sometimes makes it seem like everything is possible these days, but even today we are still framed by the possibilities that are available," Groenewege says. "Editing takes a lot of man hours, but most of the time goes into finding the right images." The next step is printing in good quality, which Tachup takes for granted. The most environmentally friendly techniques and sustainable materials are used.

The atmosphere of the past

A great example of reproduced photographs are the advertisements from the 1960s in a classic Porsche garage. Tachup made aluminum prints of 3 by 1.50 meters for the walls for this company. Tachup's enlarged photos can also be found in the center of Eindhoven. In seven service flats right in the center, the entrance halls were provided with images from the tobacco factories that used to stand here. These are photos from the early 19th century. Groenewege says: "We received large scans of files from the archives. I wasn't satisfied with those, so we started re-digitizing the original files. Of course you can still see damage on the images, but that also has its charms. You keep the look and feel that it's an old photograph. It shows the atmosphere of the old days."

Huge possibilities

Prints are possible on all kinds of materials, but most often seamless PVC-coated photo wallpaper is used. With a roll of 5 by 20 meters, the possibilities are literally enormous. Wood is also frequently used these days. If you have questions about the possibilities and differences, they are happy to help you at Tachup, says Groenewege. "We guide the project from A to Z to the desired result."