Yuan Baojun, an 81-year-old retiree who specializes in restoring faded photos, hopes to recruit apprentices to whom he can pass on his skills, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Yuan worked for the Beijing Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation starting in 1950. Based on his skills in sketching and typesetting, he became a master of photo recovery. After retiring in 1999, he learned Photoshop and helped local residents restore their old photos at no charge. Yuan has restored more than 3,000 photos in recent years. "Photos can only be preserved for 100 years, after which all images and colors will fade to white," said Yuan, who would like prospective apprentices to have basic proficiency in Photoshop and fine arts as well as being warmhearted.