Hi everyone,
A good friend of mine who was a prolific National Geographic photographer pre-2000's and his fine art photographer wife have downsized from their home of 30 years and have actually bought a place not far from me. They are both in their mid to late 80's and did the commensurate downsizing of possessions.
So I inherited quite a bit of enlarging papers stored in a climate controlled space, I suspect much of it is over 20 years old at this point. Most of the sizes are 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and some 20x24 and some technical films like Kodak Matrix. This is a lot of paper, over 200 packs and boxes, some unopened, some opened, almost all of it graded, only a handful of multi-grade and by far most of it Agfa.
I just had foot surgery that will take me out of the darkroom game for at least two months so I can't say I will be able to experiment any time soon.
Right off I can see using this almost in a Lomo sense, I get what I get and don't use it for anything in where I would expect consistency or even results of any kind. But given the photos I have attached below, what are my prospects of using it for any kind of meaningful image based on the experience of those who have used very outdated paper?
A good friend of mine who was a prolific National Geographic photographer pre-2000's and his fine art photographer wife have downsized from their home of 30 years and have actually bought a place not far from me. They are both in their mid to late 80's and did the commensurate downsizing of possessions.
So I inherited quite a bit of enlarging papers stored in a climate controlled space, I suspect much of it is over 20 years old at this point. Most of the sizes are 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and some 20x24 and some technical films like Kodak Matrix. This is a lot of paper, over 200 packs and boxes, some unopened, some opened, almost all of it graded, only a handful of multi-grade and by far most of it Agfa.
I just had foot surgery that will take me out of the darkroom game for at least two months so I can't say I will be able to experiment any time soon.
Right off I can see using this almost in a Lomo sense, I get what I get and don't use it for anything in where I would expect consistency or even results of any kind. But given the photos I have attached below, what are my prospects of using it for any kind of meaningful image based on the experience of those who have used very outdated paper?