Over the last few film development sessions I have thrown in some very old films that have been lying around my darkroom for decades : ) One film is a roll of Plus- x that might date back 35 years (when I was 14), the other is a roll of Tmax 3200 (fogged a bit) that dates back to my first long trip to Thailand back in 1999. It is rather amazing to see the people on these films, since they were sitting undeveloped in my darkroom both films ceased to be made! Both films are now currently not being produced by Kodak, gosh I am starting to feel like some relic, more like an archaeologist than a photographer.
I am not sure how much of this old film is still lying about, this might be the last of the last, am kind of sad to see them go, its exciting to open up these windows to the past.
I am not sure how much of this old film is still lying about, this might be the last of the last, am kind of sad to see them go, its exciting to open up these windows to the past.
Not much on the films but here are a few scans for fun:
First some really grainy Tmax 3200, am not sure why its so so grainy, Tmax 3200 was a grainy film but not this grainy!, age of the film? development? I kind of like the grainy harsh semi sharp shot of Nong, she was a girl who worked as a freelance sex worker, she is (was?) a beautiful person that had a hard life. I might try making that Nong neg into a print someday, it would be fun to print it, maybe high contrast in the condenser enlarger with straight dectol.
First some really grainy Tmax 3200, am not sure why its so so grainy, Tmax 3200 was a grainy film but not this grainy!, age of the film? development? I kind of like the grainy harsh semi sharp shot of Nong, she was a girl who worked as a freelance sex worker, she is (was?) a beautiful person that had a hard life. I might try making that Nong neg into a print someday, it would be fun to print it, maybe high contrast in the condenser enlarger with straight dectol.
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| Nong on the street, Bangkok Thailand 1999 |
Below is a scan from the 30-35 year old undeveloped roll of Plus-x. The neg was badly underexposed as I tended to do in those days but I spiced and cleaned up the poor quality scan a bit in photoshop. The pic is of my mom playing with her hair on a camping trip when she was probably in her mid 40s, she is now 77. Funny to think back to the fact I was doing documentary style 35mm b/w photos back when I was 15-16 years old and I am still on that same path now at 49.
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| Mom around 1980, Canada |
And an abandoned building of some kind, not a bad composition for a young guy with a hand held Canon AE-1 (the only camera I owned back then).
