Behind every photograph is a story, and New York-based photo retoucher Becci Manson wants to make sure the stories of disaster survivors struggling with the pain of losing loved ones are preserved.

This desire inspired her to initiate a project to retouch photos damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011.

"It's a great way to help out — to give people those memories back," Manson, 38, said as she recounted her initiative to restore photographs in the tsunami-hit cities of Rikuzentakata and Ofunato and the town of Yamada, all in Iwate Prefecture, one of the three areas most heavily damaged by the disasters.