Do you revisit old negatives ?

[taffer]

Or slides, no discrimination here...

If so, do you usually find nice, very nice or even great images that somehow you missed on the first (second, third...) review ? Or also other crop posibilities you didn't try before ?

Is it something you do periodically or just when it comes through your mind ?

It's just my 22:55 thought... 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Excellent pastime for a rainy day... 🙂

About two or three weeks ago, on a sleepless night, I did what I supposed would never do: browse my old prints.

It was a fascinating trip down memory lane. Nope, I didn't find "lost masterpieces" but, in turn, enjoyed seeing my old mistakes with my SLRs. Not to mention the fact that some photos elicited somewhat happy memories. It was fun, but my cat, Ben, awake at the time, was massively upset because I wasn't paying attention to him. And, of course, he found the edges of some prints extremely tasteful.

That's the kind of appreciation my photos get in this household... 🙁

Oh, well... I'm planning on taking down my other, older boxes with even older prints! If I find something worth scanning, I'll see to do it and post it right away.

Again, excellent occupation on a rainy day. It sure beats organizing your sock drawer! 🙂

 

[taffer]

And, of course, he found the edges of some prints extremely tasteful

LOL ! I bet he could become an art critic 🙂

That also makes me think on some sentences on one of the lenswork books, regarding the power that old images have to bring to your mind old but detailed and vivid memories of past times.

Indeed, a great thing to do on a rainy day 🙂

 

[doubs43]

I sometimes do. I posted some shots a few weeks back in the Gallery that I'd taken in Germany more than 30 years ago.

There's one picture in particular that I took in Germany that I intend to find when I have the time. It's one of my all-time favorites. I took it in Wetzlar with (naturally) a Leica. When I find it, I'll scan the negative and post it.

Walker

 

[matu]

I use to write notes on the sleeve of the paper negative holder, about developing times, developer etc.
Every time I try a different film or a different developer I tend to compare my negatives.
I'm also trying to find my personal exposure levels.
Sometimes when I see what I had photographed arise some new Ideas, this Is what the greeks called "diatesis" (sorry no translation here, i think is latin) when you put some distance to your creative work you can actually see it from a different point of view, just like seeing other person work. I think that observation and annotations are very usefull tools for a creative work.

Pablo

 

[FrankS]

I'm afraid that I don't have enough time to attend to my current negatives. Once a month or so I develop a batch of films, let them dry and then contact print them. In the same darkroom session I might print up 3 or 4 promising frames.

 

[Jarvis]

I look at ma old prints, ones that I thought were very promissing (at the time) and cannot believe I shot them, except for very few. So I do browse through them every now and then, and I learn from them. Some I recrop and they turn out better, but the majority sucks so to speak.... This means I personally develop, a feeling I like whilst spending so much time on the subject, good for something ...

 

[Pherdinand]

Happened a few months ago that i browsed some 2-3 year old 10x15cm proof prints - but the ones that were supposed to be thrown out. Somehow i didn't, i just kept them in a drawer.
Well i took the scissors and "cropped" them physically to cool little shapes. I have now a pretty interesting bunch of small photos with a variety of shapes and subjects, i just need another boring day to make up something using them.

 

[gabrielelopez]

Yeah, it happens...I tend to forget the shots I take, except the "gallery" ones..so I usually end up in finding many snapshots everywhere in my house, and sometime I'm all "No way, this is great.." and it becomes a favorite, until I'll find the next one.
Yeah, there is confusion here, but it keeps things intersting..

 

[gns]

I don't think I'll ever go back to old negatives. Who has the time?
I'm not sure why I keep them, really.

I like that quote (I may have read it here on RFF)...
When asked about their favorite picture, the photographer's response was, "The one I'm going to take tomorrow". Who said that?

 

[GeneW]

I definitely enjoy going back over older negatives and slides. Especially those from 30 years ago or more. To see old friends, family, familiar places as they were then -- great stuff, and often sobering (were we really that young once?)

Back then I could only print what I had time for in the darkroom. Now, with scanning, I'm seeing some of these images for the first time. Or processing them better than I did when I was learning darkroom skills.

Here's my oldest surviving negative, of a good friend of mine from 1965 at a Native rodeo in Cibacue, Arizona. Minolta Hi-Matic 7 (brand new) and Tri-X, commercially processed. Yellow filter.

Gene
.

 

[matu]

Gene, that pictures sound very interesting like the one of your friend. You could share part of your past with us and put them on your gallery, pictures of the Golden Age with a classic film.

Pablo

 

[taffer]

Thanks for the responses, some nice points here.

Pablo, I know of that 'disconnection' from the pics, fully agree with you, it's useful to create a distance with your work and also have it looked by other people.

Pherdi that's also a fun way of reusing them, as if the photographic process didn't end with the final paper copy.

Gene, I agree with Pablo, it would be really interesting to see some of those images.

Ok, so now for something completely different. Do you ever trash the negs you don't like ? For some reason it's something near blasphemy to me.

 

[RML]

Blasphemy indeed! 😛

Today's crap is tomorrow's gold. OK, maybe not, but I'm not throwing away my negs. Just last month I revisited my old negs of my first trip to Mongolia, found a few that I hadn't scanned before (I only had prints at that time, and decided to scan the best on my flatbed. Never went back to the negs afterwards when I got a neg scanner). They're now ending up in the Mongolian poetry magazine GUNU, which is a quarterly published to precede and accompany the 2006 World Congress of Poets (to be held in Mongolia). Do I need to tell I had the inside track for that? My brother-in-law is the founder of the magazine and the chief organiser of the WCP 2006. It's good to have connections. 😛