Collecting old negatives from unknown photographers

[kiwivagabond]

Yes, I always buy old negs when I see them. It's strange looking into the lives of people you don't know and trying to imagine who they were and what they were doing and a little disconcerting reflecting on the fact that many are probably long dead.
Steve

I have a similar affliction with staring at the negatives and tintypes I am collecting and wondering about the life....knowing they are in the ground and well passed by now. In that reflection I see the wonder of photography now and historically..that the person and context could be captured just as it was and frozen............for the first time 100% true.

I treat the images respectfully..........in thinking and use. They hugely influence my own photographic journey, style and approach.

whats more, they are not digital crystal clear perfecto mundo images............and they still speak massively........if willing to hear and look.

So Steve I can really relate to this, and its nice to know I am not the only one........

[kiwivagabond]

Hi,<BR><BR>If anyone is interested, I have thousands of 1950's and 1960's original color and black and white&nbsp;2 1/4" x 2 1/4" negatives.&nbsp; Images taken by contributing photographer to Life Magazine.

I am seriously interested............

[DrTang]

I have 12 or 13 rolls of 120 film - exposed and as yet undeveloped - from the mid 60's sitting in kitchen right now

Bought at an Estate Sale out of the garage/darkroom area - I developed one roll only to find some nice photographs of rooftop A/C units

I guess the guy was either a salesperson or installer and he took..at least that one roll..of his handiwork

I should probably get motivated to develop another roll just for the heck of it - maybe AC units were not all he shot

[ntenny]

I once bought a folder at an antique shop solely to get the roll of film in it (they wouldn't sell it separately). Nothing of enormous interest on that one, just a couple of exterior shots of someone's house.

But I once bought a box of IR sheet film that must have been from the late 40s (it said "Develop by June 1950"), and it turned out to have a couple of exposed sheets in it. (I *think* they were undeveloped, but of course I didn't see them until I'd put them through development myself and they didn't have anything like the images I'd tried to shoot.) They were pretty decent, apparently shot with a Speed Graphic or something similar (you can see the bed in one shot); one is the courthouse in Vancouver, WA, and the other is a semi-rural landscape from somewhere in the Portland/Vancouver area. The rest of the box appears not to have been used---I developed a few additional sheets just to check, but they were blank.

-NT

[jnanian]

i was recently gifted hundreds ( maybe 1000? ) negatives and glass plates
from someone who passed away, and giving them to me saved them from the circular file ( trash can )
he did freelance work, and the negatives / plates are pretty beautiful

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I remember Andy Warhol used to pickup other people's unclaimed photos at drug stores. Collecting vernacular photography is fun.