Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
I was given a box of very old negatives to scan by someone who inherited them recently. It's her family's complete photographic history dating from the early nineteen hundreds and going up to somewhere around the second world war ... all 127 format from what I can tell. The film appears to be a little bit narrower than 120 and is damned difficult to scan in the Epson's 120 holders because of this.
All the negatives (400 of them) were in their original beautifully made and printed, folded in half cardboard envelopes ... some with a neat row of stitching along the top and bottom and all with wonderful logos on them along with the prices etc from the pharmacy or lab that processed them on the back. Absolutely beautiful and most in perfect condition!
Once again I'm gobsmacked at how well film retains it's information after close to 100 years ... and although many had what appeared to be a fair amount of damage from the ravages of time and indifferent handling there wasn't one that didn't produce a usable image. I didn't put any time into repairing spots and water marks etc I just adjusted contrast and exposure etc where needed ... the degradation of these images is a large part of their appeal for me so I resisted the temptation to interfere with them much at all.
This to me is the people's art and the images tell the story of suburban family life in Australia shortly after the turn of the century:
Babies on knees, dogs being washed, kids on their bicycles, women chatting over the back fence, family outings to the beach or wherever, posed portraits, washing on the line in the back yard, someone on a new motorcycle and so on ... I love them all and thanks to the Brisbane floods I was able to get this job completed in a couple of days.
I hope these selected (36) images give you as much pleasure as they gave me.
edit ... the set of thirty six can be viewed as a slideshow here.
All the negatives (400 of them) were in their original beautifully made and printed, folded in half cardboard envelopes ... some with a neat row of stitching along the top and bottom and all with wonderful logos on them along with the prices etc from the pharmacy or lab that processed them on the back. Absolutely beautiful and most in perfect condition!
Once again I'm gobsmacked at how well film retains it's information after close to 100 years ... and although many had what appeared to be a fair amount of damage from the ravages of time and indifferent handling there wasn't one that didn't produce a usable image. I didn't put any time into repairing spots and water marks etc I just adjusted contrast and exposure etc where needed ... the degradation of these images is a large part of their appeal for me so I resisted the temptation to interfere with them much at all.
This to me is the people's art and the images tell the story of suburban family life in Australia shortly after the turn of the century:
Babies on knees, dogs being washed, kids on their bicycles, women chatting over the back fence, family outings to the beach or wherever, posed portraits, washing on the line in the back yard, someone on a new motorcycle and so on ... I love them all and thanks to the Brisbane floods I was able to get this job completed in a couple of days.
I hope these selected (36) images give you as much pleasure as they gave me.
edit ... the set of thirty six can be viewed as a slideshow here.
Last edited:
