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I’ve been a photographer for fifty years. I’ve used all types of cameras. From the cheapest toys, to the best the world has to offer. I process all the black and white film I use myself.
Alas, the world of film photography is vanishing. Pushed aside by the proliferation of cell phones, photographs are not regarded with the wonder they once were. The average viewer spends a few seconds looking at a tiny image on a low resolution screen and quickly forgets it.
On the following pages, you’ll see my own photographic efforts and those of other photographers that never got to see their final products. I call these images “Found Film.”
Many years ago I bought a cheap old “snapshot camera” on Ebay. The kind of camera everybody had in years gone by. The kind of camera my father used to document his family.
When it arrived, I was surprised to find an exposed roll of Kodak Verichrome Pan 120 film in it. I put the roll aside and made twelve exposures on a new roll of Vpan. I loaded both rolls onto reels, no small task with a forty year old roll in total darkness, and processed them.
I was delighted to find useable images on the old roll. I don’t recall what my images looked like. This set me off on a decades long search for more found film. These films came to me via my old website as readers dug through their homes to find lost cameras. I also found more on Ebay.
Perhaps half of the rolls were ruined by exposure to light or being stuck to backing paper etc. The ones that I was able to rescue, often brought emotional responses from family members that got to see long lost loved ones and the like. The photographers never got to see the fruits of their labors.
Keep in mind the fact that roll films from the past often held only a handful of exposures, six to perhaps sixteen, before the film needed to be rewound, removed from the camera and brought somewhere, often a drug store for processing. Then you had to wait days or weeks to get your prints and pay the druggist.
You can see why frames weren’t “wasted” as they are on your damn phone. If there were still three frames left, you put the camera in a safe, dark place and waited for the next important event. If the photographer passed away, the camera might sit for years before showing up on Ebay or a tag sale somewhere.
So, take a look at the forgotten films*, I rescued and presented here.
eyelevel0585 at gmail dot com
The Big List of Film Cameras I’ve Used
* “Found Film” Under Construction
Special Subjects
Belchertown State School
Winter: Cape Cod Massachusetts