Daniel Arcé

The problem

Barbara Beirne's photography archive lived entirely inside a Flash website that had stopped working years ago. The original source files and developer were both unavailable. I was brought in to recover the images and rebuild the site from scratch.

Recovering the images

The images were embedded in a compiled .SWF binary file. I used FFDec, an open-source Flash decompiler, to extract usable assets from the binary. It took some work to get clean exports, but the tool pulled the full image set.

Image extracted from a .SWF file using FFDec

The rebuild

Future compatibility was the priority, so I built the site with Web Components and Vanilla JavaScript instead of a framework that could age out. The build pipeline runs on Rollup with Sass for styling. The full-screen image carousel and all navigation are keyboard-accessible.

Barbara's images carry a lot of weight. We decided that a minimal, stark design would frame her work best.

Client feedback

"Daniel is exceptional. He was charged with recreating a photo website built initially in Flash that had long been non-functional. Daniel came up with suggestions and solutions that were beyond what the original site had and brought it all to life. The site is responsive and works seamlessly on all platforms and browsers. Most importantly, Daniel is truly a pleasure to work with. He is a great communicator, delivers on time, is a perfectionist -- in the best sense of the word - and is thoughtful and considerate. I had no references to go by when we hired Daniel and couldn't be more pleased with his work."

Alison Cornyn

Artist + Co-Founder and Creative Director Picture Projects

June 13, 2023