Images from a 1941 Agfa Ansco film

Mark Antony · Jul 13, 2007

I hope this will be of interest here.
Recently I bought some bulk loads Agfa Ansco Ultra-speed on ebay, dated April 1941.
I decided to clip test a short length, and to my surprise it has images, fogged but still there:

If anyone would like to read its on my blog along with pictures of the tin and the Data-sheets:
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/

alien · Jul 13, 2007

Amazing!!!!!!!

htmlguru4242 · Jul 13, 2007

Wow. That's an impressive result from something approaching 70 years old!

Marc Akemann · Jul 13, 2007

This is great! I'm glad the right person wound up with this film. I hope you post more images in the future.

Have you ever seen this website? http://westfordcomp.com/updated/found.htm . This person processes film found in old cameras and displays the images. I love this kind of stuff!

Marc

Uncle Bill · Jul 13, 2007

Cool!!!!!!!!!!!

MartinB · Jul 13, 2007

I'll second Uncle Bill's cool !!!! Facinating to see images after such a long time and makes you wonder what the story is behind the pictures - what happened to the photographer that he left them unprocessed ...

You may get lucky and find someone who knows about the people in the photos. Many people doing genealogical research use google looking for information on ancestors and if you add some more information to your blog it may increase the hit rate. Perhaps some information about the city and country where the seller is, any place or company name identifiers etc. You never know you may get lucky. Some of the genealogical blogs may also be worth a post or two directing them to your blog.

Martin

jimgalli · Jul 13, 2007

So....did you make your 3 wishes? Genie's been locked in there for 65+ years.

Mark Antony · Jul 14, 2007

Well I now have some decisions.
I have contacted the film seller to see if he can shed any light on where the film is from.
I have a lot of film left, I'm going to develop it but I think I'll use D76 rather than Rodinal because of grain.
any other options?
Mark

Andy K · Jul 14, 2007

I like that there is no evidence of flash being used (shadows on the camera side of the man's face). Whoever took these was well versed in available light photography.
A great find and kudos in being able to pull images from such old film!

Ps. Just noticed your loacation, did you buy the film from the States? The photographs have a distinctly American feel to them, maybe because of the hat. If they are British then I would say they are possibly a pre-war Christmas or other celebration, as there is no sign of wartime austerity.

Mark Antony · Jul 14, 2007

Andy i bought the film from the States (on ebay) I'm trying o find out the films history from the seller.
The film went out of date in April 1941 so possibly these are prewar (for Americans) as Agfa Ultra-speed was made between 1938-41 and at 160 ASA was the fastest emulsion of its day- like a Kodak TMax 3200 now
Mark

Marc Akemann · Sep 11, 2007

Mark Antony said:
Andy i bought the film from the States (on ebay) I'm trying o find out the films history from the seller.
The film went out of date in April 1941 so possibly these are prewar (for Americans) as Agfa Ultra-speed was made between 1938-41 and at 160 ASA was the fastest emulsion of its day- like a Kodak TMax 3200 now
Mark

Hey Mark,

Any new 'developments' with your found film (bulk loads/Agfa Ansco Ultra-speed)?

Marc

Mark Antony · Sep 13, 2007

Hello Marc
The story is a long one most of which is in the pages of my blog:
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/
but what I have found out is that;
It was shot 1938-41.
The photographer was from the Camden area of New Jersey.
The images of the party were shot in a Theatre possibly in Camden.
He may have worked for the post office and had a wife and 2 children.
I have been unsuccessful in tracing him but have found a possible match among the images.
This is Camden Lawyer Henry Barroway

Taken in the 1940s
he has a striking resemblence to this man in my pictures

As I'm based in the UK I'm finding it hard to pursue this further but hopefully someone may find my blog looking for Camden post office workers.
The photographer was also a very good image maker, that's for sure and I'll leave you with his picture of his wife and children.

Regards
Mark

fhovie · Sep 13, 2007

I am speechless - like time trapped in a bottle - you done good!

crabby · Sep 13, 2007

I'm contacting the photo editor of the Camden NJ newspaper. Perhaps the paper can be of help.

Sirius Glass · Sep 14, 2007

In 2008 the 1940 US census will be released. You will be able to go to a Mormon Temple Family Center and if you have identified the man, then you will be able to learn the names of his family members at that time, when he was married, his occupation [which you already know], his street address and if he lived in an apartment what the apartment number was. You may be able to find out his annual salary.

Then in 2018 you will be able to see the 1950 census and find out where he lived then and if his family grew.

Check the 1930 census.

Steve

Images from a 1941 Agfa Ansco film

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