Found Film Photos

[djklmnop]

Found Films / Photos

Lately I've been very intrigued with found films / photos. It is interesting to read stories about people buying a kodak brownie box and finding an old roll of film. In turn developing it and coming out with some pretty interesting images. Do you folks have any photos to share of any found films you've encountered? Please share it here.

I haven't been fortunate enough to run into these, but I have been shopping at vintage shops and have seen many great silver prints of old war portraits, etc..

Here are some links I've managed to find off a search on yahoo.

http://gallery.spundreams.net/founds

http://members.aol.com/jonesdolph/foundphotos.htm



Andy

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I haven't been following photo.net lately, but there was a guy in the Classic Cameras forum who had a real flair for the "found film" genre, and he inspired a number of others to try it. He made up a webpage for each camera and roll, and wrote a story based on the pictures. There was one called something like "An Ansco and a Sucky Vacation" that was particularly good.

 

[TPPhotog]

Not found any yet but I keep looking in hope.

The second link was very useful as I rescued some family war photos from the local market a few weeks ago that I'm trying to trace the family of. Maybe it's just me but I feel it's so sad when pictures of a families past go walkabout and maybe those a few generations down the family line would love to own them again.

 

[medform-norm]

We collect slides and old photo albums. Must have several thousands of them by now. Just happened on another collection today. By now, we're quite used to seeing family life of strangers. Must say it very rarely out of the ordinary. But still, some slides are true treasures.

You could check out this site, developed by some of our collegues: Dead Link Removed - if I remember well they've got a link section to related website.

Hope you found this of interest.

Medform-norm

 

[fil]

There is a very active forum over at photo.net on pre-1970s vintage cameras, and lots of posts are about found images. Fascinating stuff (and it can be a little sad, too). It's a nice bunch posting there:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=1903

and of course they use film!!

 

[JHannon]

Medform-norm, Thanks for the link. I am interested in this stuff too.

I have never found film in any of my purchased cameras. I once found a loose negative in the pages of a book I bought at my local library. It was an old horse drawn fire pump (Hand tub). I was able to see the fire dept. name on the pump. I contacted them and they still have the old pump on display. I made them a 8X10 for their office. I think the neg was from the 1940's and it was from a parade.

It was fun visiting them and seeing the old pump.

Regards,
John

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

In the photo.net Classics forum, look particularly for threads by "Gene M".

 

[BradS]

Mystery Film inside

standard disclaimer applies...not my auction...not my friends auction, I'm not bidding, etc...

 

[rbarker]

I bought a '70s vintage camera that had a roll of film in it. Turns out, the film showed Jimmy Hoffa being picked up at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Michigan, then being killed. Several men posed with the body before they dumped it into the foundation that was being poured for a building. The construction signs and street signs are fairly sharp in the negs, as are the faces of the men posing with the body.

Does the film have any value?

 

[bill schwab]

About 20 years ago I found a bunch of 120 B&W negatives in 7 of those small, old Kodak negative file booklets each with their own slipcase at a garage sale. I just stuck them away in a box where they sat until recently when I came upon them and decided to have a closer look. What I found was not simply the usual family/travel snaps kind of thing, but a very serious photographer. They are dated throughout 1945 and have many of the aesthetic characteristics of the big California shooters of the day. Adams, Weston, etc. They are obviously a cross-country trek this person took and have everything from Niagara Falls to Yellowstone and Yosemite on them. As I said, not your usual travel fare. Lots of interesting angles and obvious attempt at keeping humans out of view. It is quite a body of work - several hundred images of which anyone would be proud. Unfortunately after so long there is no way for me to track the photographer. Whoever it was must have been one of us and was most likely following the hot photographers and trends of the day.

 

[medform-norm]

Medform-norm, Thanks for the link. I am interested in this stuff too.
Regards,
John

Glad to have been of use! Share & Njoy is my motto.

cheers, medform-norm

 

[BradS]

I bought a '70s vintage camera that had a roll of film in it. Turns out, the film showed Jimmy Hoffa being picked up at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Michigan, then being killed. Several men posed with the body before they dumped it into the foundation that was being poured for a building. The construction signs and street signs are fairly sharp in the negs, as are the faces of the men posing with the body.

Does the film have any value?

The film is obviously a hoax. Everybody knows that Hoffa is burried under the fifty yard line at the old Lion's stadium....

 

[kwmullet]

Surprised no one's posted this yet:

Found Magazine
http://www.foundmagazine.com/

Click on the photos section.

-KwM-

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Found film.

I have picked up a few cameras with film still inside but the images wern,t really anything to crow about. My greatest discovery was a roll of Kodak Pan 620 in the desk which had belonged to my late grandfather.That film kicked around for another 15 years before I realized that the sticker on the paper back said EXPOSED. My local camera shop said "We can,t process that its B+W".
To make a long story short I cobbled together all the info. I could get on developing "old film" and gave it a shot.I practiced loading paper backed film with the lights on then loaded and processed the "old" roll. Blown away by the results.images of my grandparents,uncle and mother from around 1959-60.And still printable!
Try that with a memory card after 40+ years.
Film rules!
Mike

 

[JHannon]

Here is a link to the the guy that David was talking about on Photo.net

Found Photos

Lots of interesting stuff...

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Here is a link to the the guy that David was talking about on Photo.net

Found Photos

Lots of interesting stuff...

Yeah, that's the one. I find this one particularly amusing--

http://westfordcomp.com/foundfilm/kodacolorx/hercoimperial/hercoimperial.htm

 

[Sjixxxy]

In early February I went for a walk on a freakishly warm day and found the greatest found photo ever sitting on a snowbank.

 

[JHannon]

Yeah, that's the one. I find this one particularly amusing--

http://westfordcomp.com/foundfilm/kodacolorx/hercoimperial/hercoimperial.htm

He developed the old roll of Kodacolor 620 in HC110 dil b?.. Looks like it worked well enough to get some decent images. If you go to his root directory, he has a section on the Quabbin Reservoir's history too.

 

[sionnac]

How about these:

Dead Link Removed

 

[sionnac]

I like these two, bought them at a used bookstore I used to work for:

 

[Donald Qualls]

He developed the old roll of Kodacolor 620 in HC110 dil b?..

This works pretty well, though my own preference is for higher dilution and longer process -- the result you get is rather dense for wet printing, but scans okay. Not great quality, but how good would even 30 year old Kodacolor II be in the correct C-41 after this much time? And forget getting anything useful from most C-22 films like the original Kodacolor...

 

[david b]

I went to MoPA today in San Diego and they have a show up right now about found photos. Kind of cool.

 

[Heath]

I have 3 roll of film that were in some old cameras I purchased on eBay. I am curious as to what is on them. I need to remember to get them developed.

I also have a roll of 35m that I got in a box of olf Kodak lenses. That roll has been developed and has shots of a family picnic or vacation.

Heath

 

[Ben Taylor]

Dead Link Removed has a lovely collection of found photographs.

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

I remember looking through a very large bin of old photos at Snoopers' Paradise in Brighton, UK. Most were family portraits and snapshots from the 40s, 50s and 60s. They were cheap too. Unfortunately I suffered from paralysis of analysis and didn't buy any. I still regret it . . .