Story highlights

Lost Photo Project hopes to reunite cameras with owners

Photos are all from memory cards found in UK since 2007

CNN  — 

What would you miss most if you lost your camera?

The 36.3 megapixel FX sensor and weather-sealed body? Or the memory card filled with life’s unrepeatable moments?

The UK’s Lost Photo Project hopes to reunite “orphaned images” – and the mislaid cameras that took them – with their rightful owners.

An online gallery of 20 photos launched Thursday, all from cameras lost in the UK in the last 10 years.

The moments captured include brides signing the wedding register, a smiling graduate posing with family, and a man bottle-feeding his infant daughter.

Some contain clues as to location: Three friends gather at Stonehenge, others stand in Greenwich Park.

The project is the work of insurance technology start-up Trov and has been launched to coincide with the Photography Show held in Birmingham, UK from March 18 to 21.

Do you recognize this woman?

Jeff Berezny, Trov’s Global Head of Marketing, told CNN: “We hope that members of the public will recognize a friend, cousin, or co-worker, and alert them and start the process of reuniting photographer to lost device.”

The photos have been selected from thousands submitted to independent Vienna-based crowdsourcing project Camerafound. The two companies will be working together to connect images and cameras to owner.

Members of the public who recognize the people can begin the reuniting process by visiting the website trov.com/lostphotoproject or by emailing lostphotoproject@trov.com.

While today’s cloud technology means that we’re increasingly likely to have our photos safely backed up, this wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

Says Berezny, “For nearly all the photos, we know the date and general location of where in the UK the Good Samaritans found these cameras. Most of the images are undated.”

“The beautiful thing about these photos is that some capture routine moments from people’s lives, whilst others seem to document really significant events which must have made the loss of the camera all the more frustrating to the owner,” adds Berezny.

“The variety makes it really special.”