The initial interest for undertaking this project was born years ago, when I was a child. Looking at old portraits of relatives long dead, I would often start imagining what their lives could have been like. I would never know these people, yet I felt that I could understand them if only I looked hard enough. What were their hopes, fears or secret desires? I imagined answers while exploring their seemingly unexpressive faces. This ongoing ambrotype portrait series is a study in the perception of history as seen in the human face, as well as personal objects from my childhood that hold certain keys to my own past. Work began on this project in 2003 and continues today. The photographic technique however was born some 150 years ago. The initial association with the look of these pieces is ancestral. The contrast between modern subject and an antiquated technique results in a further study into the mystery of each individual face, as seen through an old lens. This series was shot on a Graflex 4x5 Press camera, using a single lens element salvaged from a modern zoom lens.