What if you could make only 72 photographs?

If I could only take 72 photos I probably would not even start, particularly if I couldn't see the results. It has taken me many, many more than 72 to just get a sense of what is possible, let alone know what I want to do.

At least with the first Brownie you had 100 shots before you sent the camera away.

However, this is an interesting idea. I finished rebuilding my 11x14 a few months back but haven't really started working with it yet. I think I'll start by shooting 72 sheets of film and see where that takes me.

Thanks Theo.

Why would I want to take 72 photographs that I cannot develop and print? Your premise needs more than a little rewriting.

Sirius Glass said:

Why would I want to take 72 photographs that I cannot develop and print? Your premise needs more than a little rewriting.

Click to expand...

You can print them if you want.

After my initial paragraph describing the scenario, I added the question: "What if you're told you can never see these photos - does that change anything?". That criteria was not intended as a requirement.

My intent is for people to choose what may be viable for them, given the initial 72 photo constraint. That is why I also wrote, "You needn't answer all these questions, just pick those of interest, if any.'

Sirius Glass said:

Why would I want to take 72 photographs that I cannot develop and print? Your premise needs more than a little rewriting.

Click to expand...

Theo Sulphate said:

You can print them if you want.

After my initial paragraph describing the scenario, I added the question: "What if you're told you can never see these photos - does that change anything?". That criteria was not intended as a requirement.

My intent is for people to choose what may be viable for them, given the initial 72 photo constraint. That is why I also wrote, "You needn't answer all these questions, just pick those of interest, if any.'

Click to expand...

I would take all 72 of wife and family in the next week, develop and print the pictures and spend the rest of my life selling off as much of my photography gear as possible for as long as I lived. The bulk of my equipment would then be left to the family to use or dispose of......Regards! (But wait, I might need my medium format camera, or even large format if there IS life after death. Don't really see a demand for the 35mm except as paper-weights for people to admire like non-Leica owners often say.)

if i couldn't see it, i wouldn't take it...

i would go back in the darkroom and print some of those negatives that need more work that i was willing to invest at the time and always meant to print - a real vivian mayer - with less talent tho'

I'd make 72 images of life as we know it - to communicate, as best as I could, to a future generation or visitors from some other cosmic place, what life and the human condition was like at the time.

Oh wait, that's my next self-assignment!

Actually, I've done it once before 45 years ago, unintentionally, without having thought about it, but I wasn't limited to 72 images. I shot an immense volume - over 10 thousand B&W frames in my teens alone, in my home town. Many decades later I shared nearly a thousand of the best of those images with many hundreds of people both of and not of that era. Had I known then what I know now, I would have still have shot much of what I did, but would shoot even more variety with a visionary intent to make the most iconic images or normal life, people, places, and things that are truly representative of the era to be enjoyed long after I'm gone - aware of the deep and profound impact such images can have on so many lives.

Michael Firstlight