300 high school students waiting for darkroom time

bill h · Jan 25, 2017

In today's Boston Globe, we read the story of a Lexington high school student who answered a teacher's request to bring in old negatives for her darkroom class. Read all about it. http://bit.ly/2j5feGt

rthollenbeck · Jan 25, 2017

Wow, very cool! Stereo Realist photos of WWI.
A 5x7 photo of a real trench is pretty exciting too, but I'm sure 5x7 was comon enough then. I wonder if the photographer was acting in some official capacity. It couldn't have been convent to carry a 5x7 around under those circumstances.
I hope someone prints those images for them and one for some museum as well.

bdial · Jan 25, 2017

A very interesting story, thanks for pointing us to it.

OptiKen · Jan 25, 2017

I'm confused about the stereo photos. Realist wasn't around in 1918 so they weren't shot with that camera. If those are negatives rather than prints on the table in front of him, then they were shot on 120 film (I'm imagining).

Great find, non the less.
I remember finding some pictures of my Dad's that were from his time in WW11. I find it fascinating looking back into history as if you were there. Photographs can give me that feeling.

Molli · Jan 25, 2017

OptiKen said:
I'm confused about the stereo photos. Realist wasn't around in 1918 so they weren't shot with that camera. If those are negatives rather than prints on the table in front of him, then they were shot on 120 film (I'm imagining).

I didn't see anywhere in the article where a Realist camera was mentioned. Stereoscopic cameras were first invented around 1847, made for wet plate, then dry plates and, eventually, film. I have some stereo images on glass plates here and I've no idea what size plate they would be specified as, nor when the photos might have been taken. However, your mention of when the photos in the images were taken has got me really curious about the plates I have so I'm off to do a little research - thank you!
Also, thank you to Mr. Harting for the link to the article. I was "showing" off some hundred year old glass plates to a friend recently and we were all commenting on much the same sort of things as those students were - the fact of those little pieces of glass having actually BEEN right were the photos were taken and travelling down through the decades to arrive intact for later generations to hold in the palm of their hands. It's pretty amazing!

keenmaster486 · Jan 25, 2017

300 students on a waiting list to learn film photography!!!
THIS is what I want to see.

I would advertise film photography classes/workshops where I live but I just don't have the time

removed account4 · Jan 25, 2017

thanks bill,
this made my day

john

GregW · Jan 26, 2017

Intriguing!
The slides were likely made with a Jules Richard stereo camera or the like, Heidescope etc...The camera next to the young photographer is a revere 33, an excellent choice, better than a realist in my opinion. The prints mentioned were made by the young photographer in the article in the school darkroom from the original old slides. Hopefully the camera next to him is not just a prop, hopefully he has learned to use it.

silveror0 · Jan 26, 2017

rthollenbeck said:
...A 5x7 photo of a real trench is pretty exciting too, but I'm sure 5x7 was comon enough then. I wonder if the photographer was acting in some official capacity. It couldn't have been convent to carry a 5x7 around under those circumstances...

The "5x7" refers to a PRINT size, not a negative. The camera was surely much smaller than a 5x7 large format camera.

rthollenbeck · Jan 26, 2017

silveror0 said:
The "5x7" refers to a PRINT size, not a negative. The camera was surely much smaller than a 5x7 large format camera.

Yea I guess I got a little sloppy. I saw 5x7 and the article was taking negatives, so I thought it was a contact print.

I also assumed after seeing what I thought was a realist in the picture, that they were sujesting stereo negatives came from that. I didn't think to research the age of the realist. But I guess giving it just a little thought, I wouldn't believe it has been around that long.....

300 high school students waiting for darkroom time

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