Shots off some recently developed rolls from the past couple months
Unfortunately I never seem to shoot the same film stock consistently with the same camera so I never end up developing everything on a regular basis- I’d like to start ensuring I have everything I shoot in a given month developed by the time that month ends but we’ll see how it goes
I had been trucking out the Rolleiflex on the lead up to the New Year- I took yesterday to get into the darkroom and develop up my first roll of Acros 100
I think something went wrong with my Rolleiflex during this frame- it did some naturally vignetting and when I cut out the frame from the area the scanner covered it didnt appear to be the same size as my others
I’ve been carrying around my Nikanos V on account of all the rain, the following are a mix mostly composed of Australia Day
I had taken a photo of the same dog on a roll of Astia 2 months ago
Up till now I had only been running color film through the Rolleiflex but seeing the results of the Neopan really affirms my preference for black and white
Depending on when I can get into the darkroom next I should have more on the way; I’ve been lax on the shooting on account of work stress- this past Friday was the first day I was able to get out and into a decent flow.
Not making time for the darkroom plays a part too- the longer I go without developing my film and seeing the results the less interested I am in continuing to shoot leading to my having less exposed film to develop and less reason to take an evening or afternoon to stand around measuring out developer and turning a tank upside down for 3 or 4 hours.
In an effort to switch it up a little I dug through the big bag of negatives to find something more modern
Someone’s vacation shots from a trip out to Alice Springs/Uluru National Park back in 1984- only thing written on the negative sleeve was “REB AIR AUG ’84”
I have no leads as to the actual photographer
Film stock was Illford FP4
A few more images off the negatives I picked up late last year
This hotel is still standing today in Mackay, Queensland
I had been contacted by another collector who identified the woman in many of the photos (including the image above) as Mollie Thomas; this is further substantiated by the name Thomas written on the actual cardboard negative sleeves.
I’d like to take more time to do some research on locations and people but trying to stay social, check off all the miscellaneous life errands, and keep on top of work is leaving me little time to even do any shooting of my own- the egg tray of my refrigerator is over loaded with rolls of unshot Tri-X and Neopan.
My study is getting full of stacks of old glass negatives, boxes of color slides, and rolls of black and white film that all need to be trayed, scanned and edited up- I’m hoping to get a breather sometime around mid-Feb when I can section off a clean weekend to keep things rolling.
I haven’t had much time to do any homework into these shots- I tried to see if I could look up the Exchange Hotel from the first shot but the subsequent Google results were too much to sort.
For now, I’ll focus on getting some scanned and posted- research can wait till later.
Reference:
I found a second hand shop was having a 30-50% off sale last weekend so I swooped in to see if I could get a deal on any old negatives they had- I ended up with a sizable bag of what I would guess is going on a few hundred spread across multiple packets.
Since the quantity is so large I’ve decided to break it down into a few separate posts, I’ve dubbed it the ‘Crown Street Cache’ since the actual store I found them at was on Crown Street in Darlinghurst.
These seem to be the most promising find yet- with the sheer amount of shots taken, there should be plenty of clues as to decade and location, I’ll see what I can manage this week for research.
I realized I had been forgetting to scan a few different rolls I had developed since I got back from the states so here’s a quick mix of shots in rough chronological order
That’s it for now
Originally I was trying to stick solely to negatives but I find I end up breaking that rule once in awhile and buy something like this- since these are scans of actual prints I left the tint and discoloration in tact for dramatic effect.
Most of the shots are of a European vacation and feature what are still common place tourist destinations such as the haunted Jamacia Inn, this same shot taken today can be found on the Inn’s main website.
My guess on time period is late 40’s/early 50’s- based on the dress of the people and the cars their driving.
Quick update with an image I was able to scan off of a glass negative acquired here in Sydney
They appear to be either miners or possibly railway worker posing in front a monument.
There is a date on it partially visible over the shoulder of the guy on the far right on the back row but I’m unable to make out the last digit, its reads either 1913 or 1918.
Quick update with a few shots of my own from the past couple months:
I snapped this first shot of Katie only to realize there was a way more interesting dude behind her
99%’ers camping out in Martin Place
Man who had just proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of Occupy Sydney
Enmore was over ran with teenagers expressing their identity crisis
Newtown’s ‘Reclaim the Lanes’ festival
Glebe Markets
I tried taking the same style shot multiple times, pocketing the subject in the bottom left or right corner while trying to give it as much context as possible
I’ve been working on doing my own film development and I feel like its giving me better results than anything I had got back from a lab in the past year- I’ve coupled this with using a Phaidon discount I get to buy up some photography books.
While reading through Danny Lyon‘s Memories of Myself he transcribes Hugh Edwards telling him how the best photographs imply movement. It seems an obvious statement in hindsight but I had never been able to put my finger on what the ‘poetic quality’ was that made some images stand out while others look stale and I think its that exactly- when it feels like the image is just after something started but before its finished.
After the Newtown Festival a couple weeks ago I was on my to Doughboy for a pizza when I dropped into Gould’s to dig through the mountain of books. I found a copy of Nikos Economopoulos’ In the Balkans which was the first time I had seen any of his work or even heard of him- its was 30 bucks (comparatively high for Gould’s) so I left it. By the time this Friday rolled around I had been thinking about the images so much that I sat through a jammed up CBD for an hour and a half on the M30 after work to go back and see if it was still there.
I consider it now the best photography book I own- in my mind its up there with Koudelka. Since leafing through it and studying the images, I feel like I’m reevaluating every shot I’m about to take. I dont know if its the cuts and crops he’s making after the fact or if he is actually getting that in there to frame while shooting but I’m amazed at each stray arm, foot, branch, bottle or cigarette in his shots.
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