Topic: found vintage film

[db]

Australia on holiday-  Circa mid 1960's

A while back I hit on a friend for a night's accommodation in Sydney, and as I snoozed on the couch, noticed a cute box brownie on his book shelf. Nothin' fancy- just your common  garden-variety black house brick. I fiddled, clicked and ripped it apart (wouldn't you- c'mon be honest) and to my surprise found an exposed roll in the back.

Turns out the camera was an old hand-me-down, so we decided that whoever was on the film was probably 'family' from before he was born. Processing and scanning became my payment for the bed and breakfast...

I wasn't exactly speedy to honour the bargain, but after a reminder email this week, got to work. I think he'll be pleased.





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[Skorj]

Pleased! Wow! These are brilliant! Art of the first order. Funny that; the passing of time promoting the ordinary to special. Care in dev & printing is obvious, the shades are great, but the subjects too are fantastic. That suit! The caravan! The cars, the fish...

[rdbkorn]

Crikey!

[al]

Wow!  Care to share your developing technique?  The couple of times I've found 60's rolls in cameras, they've come out totall fogged   

[Marcello]

Funny that; the passing of time promoting the ordinary to special.

Agree. Vernacular Photography at its best.

[LT]

the man with the fish has an almost surreal quality to it - he looks like he's come straight from Blue Velvet or some other Lynch creation.  excellent stuff.

[Ailsa]

I agree - the fish has it. But all of them have a wonderful quality that's quite difficult to define. Your friend is going to be delighted.

[db]

Heh- they ARE gold for sure.

Al- I'm afraid there's no big secret... I was probably just luckier. I did process for contrast, thinking that the latent image may have degraded some over the years, and the brownie lens would never have been high contrast in the first place. So I chose a dilute 'dev+longer time' process, then added a minute or two because, well, just because. Negs are a little dense, but scanned OK. These images direct from the 120, 6x9 neg scans.

Leon- Fishman's hair is off the guy in Eraserhead, yeah?
Skorj- Agreed, Australian structural engineering at it's best.

[This-is-damion]

Amazing find!  I have found 2 rolls of film in my time,  neither processed at all.

   

[Francois]

This is truly cool!
The girl sitting on the hood (bonnet) of the car... you don't see that anymore
(my car's front end slopes so much she would have just slipped to the ground)
And the way the guy holds the fish... look at the hands. This is definitely not a trophy bass 

Strange how much fun old pictures can be...

[astrobeck]

I love the whole set!
The fish is my fav!!!
Your pal will be pleased.

[eyecaramba]

Lovely, Don.  I fancy the women.  Ha!  Fishman is prolly fragrant.

And look for an old something in the mail...  a promise that is.

cheers!

[pdewolff]

i had something like that once. when i bought an old camera (1950 Nettar) there was still an unused film in it. after using this result came out like this. (http://met-120-door-de-bocht.my-expressions.com/archives/10182_1577198231/264099)

The pictures you are showing are fabulous, all shapes, man woman and caravan are jewels !

[Ed Wenn]

Astonishing collection. Well done DB. I echo the comments above.

[gary m]

I am always on the lookout for vintage snapshots. These are excellent DB!

[woodstove]

the man with the fish has an almost surreal quality to it - he looks like he's come straight from Blue Velvet or some other Lynch creation.  excellent stuff.

That's exactly what I was thinking...he kind of looks like Lynch, actually. Great photos--what a nice surprise. It always gives me a kind of chill thinking about all those latent images on all the undeveloped rolls of film tucked away in abandoned cameras throughout the world. 

[db]

I bundled the prints and scans off interstate to the camera owner, and heard back from him yesterday. He was completely overwhelmed.

Turns out the older folk (inc. fisherman) were grandparents I'm not sure he had ever met.

The younger woman is his mother- who shortly after his birth, suffered serious facial burns in an accident. This is one of the few images he's seen of her prior to the accident.

Isn't photography a wonderful thing 

[LT]

an amazing end to an already excellent story

[astrobeck]

Ah, that's the stuff of wonderful magazine articles.

It would make a great story....have you thought of  writing it out with some thoughts from the grandson?
A mini memoir of the grandparents and parents type thing?

Even though the number of photos is not extensive, I think it would make a very nice tribute to times past.

 

[Sandeha Lynch]

Excellent, and in pristine condition.

Occasionally you get the "I wonder if this old thing still works" shot towards the end of the roll ...

[Francois]

Pictures are something precious. Many who don't like photography never realize this. The others don't realize it until they've lost everything in a hard disk crash (what I call an accident waiting to happen)...

My dad knew a man who had to escape to Canada during the last war. He came with only his clothes on his back. He had made himself a new life, got married and had kids. But he once told my dad that he would give up everything he managed to earn since he came to the country only to have a single family picture...

When you know this, it gives a whole different perspective on the photos we take...

[Susan B.]

Superb!
I love that the trailer stars in every shot.
My fav is the grumpy old lady spoting heels on grass no less.
With her arms folded like that--She looks as if she's commenting on the previous photos. Brilliant.
Wish there were more--feels like we just got started with this fantastic narative

Wait. Hold the phone. I just realized that the blonde in the first photo and the old lady in the last photo are sporting the same hat. Great bookend. You just gotta love this series.