CHAPIN, S.C. — Restoring memories one photo at a time is what Joe Mistretta's specialty is.
This self-taught Long Island native, now living in Chapin, tells News 19 he's always loved photography, taking after his father, who created a photographic dark room in the house Mistretta grew up in.
Mistretta explains he can do just about anything when it comes to photos. No picture is too tough or too old to tackle.
"I can do basically any kind of video cassette, transfer to DVD, I can combine cassettes to make one giant movie, I do slide and picture work, meaning I can copy them, duplicate them, print them, give you digital files," Mistretta said.
A few weeks ago, Mistretta had a project of 500 slides to digitize. In working, he uses photo and video editing software, a digitizer, and a service station he created.
So why does Joe do all this tedious work correcting photos?
"Just to see my customer's eyes when I show them what I did to a picture that's maybe 20 years old, or 30 years old or 50 years old. Parents and grandparents that they haven't seen in years and I bring them back and make them look the way they actually looked. It's the best part of my job," Mistretta said.
It's been this way since 1976, Joe helping to bring photos back to life.