Time for a look at some of the slides I salvaged from Camden Market over the weekend. I chose about 35 of the 50+ that I bought and had them scanned yesterday. Here are nine of my favorites.
This one (above) is marked "Regent Street, 1961." It's a long exposure and it's blurry, but I like the effect and the sense of action. I bought a second one with less blur and I don't like it nearly as much.
"Don, Edwin, Karl, Norman, Sandra: pitch & putting." (No date)
Again, it's blurry, but I love the joyful energy.
May 16, 1989: "Puig Major from L'Ofre -- Tom."
Puig Major is a mountain peak on the Spanish island of Majorca.
Sept. 18, 1997: "Karachi beach camels."
Some of these slides really aren't very old. I bought one from as late as 2010. I'm surprised anyone was shooting slide film at that point, but I guess it's hard to teach an old photographer new tricks.
Sept. 21, 1997: "Simikot children"
Simikot is in Nepal. I bought several slides taken by someone named K. D. Halliday of a trek through the Himalayas. (The Karachi beach camels is Halliday's shot, too.) These little girls look like they're trying to cross all their fingers. Are they wishing the travelers good luck?
June, 1977: There's no information other than the date, so I'm not sure where this is.
"Christmas 1961, at Moor Park. Trish!"
I love this picture. It might be my favorite of the bunch. Moor Park is in northwest London. This picture as well as the ones of Regent Street and Sandra et al above have the same handwriting on them, so probably came from the same photographer or family.
There's no information at all on this slide. But the building to the right in the background says "Gaspinger Hof," which is still a hotel in Gerlos, Austria -- and the car at right has an Austria sticker. So that's where we are. Here's the same view today, but without the parade, obviously. I would guess this pic is from the 1960s?
August 15, 1968: "Bremer Hütte, 2,413 meters" -- in addition to the Asian ones I mentioned above, this is also a Halliday slide, as well as the one of Puig Major. The Bremer Hütte is in Gschnitz, Austria, and has been enlarged a couple of times since this photo was taken. Now it sleeps 73 guests and has its own electric plant!
I'll put all the slides I got scanned on Flickr and when I do I'll link the album so you can see the rest, if you're interested.
A commenter wondered recently why I feel compelled to save other people's pictures. To me, a photo -- a good one, anyway -- has cultural value. Maybe it makes us laugh or feel something, or it shows a time and place long past. Often when an everyday photographer dies their photos get discarded, and I don't fault anyone for that -- it's hard to keep everything. In my own family we have boxes and boxes of pictures. But I hate the thought of these captured moments vanishing forever, so I try to salvage some here and there and preserve them digitally. I see it as a kind of public service.
See earlier posts of rescued slides here and here.
28 comments:
I love the beach camels with all the beads.
I absolutely love that you do this. It's something I never would have considered. I hope a descendant of one of these photographers or subjects discovers their family or friends here.
This is a bit like people watching and putting stories to them.
What. Doesn't everyone do this?
Like Merlot, I watch people and make stories. I never grouped your picture saving with that but Merlot is right. What do these pictures tell us about this family?
At the very least, by saving the image online you are improving the various Artificial Intelligence bots out there.
That's an interesting assortment
I love that you do this. These are slices of life, moments frozen in time that take us to places we might not experience or -- in the case of the Moor Park sleeping woman -- remind us of past experiences. Yes, that has happened to me!
That's a cool, odd collection!
The one if the woman right before she goes over the cliff, very Agatha Christie! Was she pushed? Who took the picture..
That last one is my favorite - I would like to be there right now instead of at work. Ha!
It's a cool hobby, Steve. I love imagining the stories and lives surrounding these photos.
Wow! There's some money represented in some of these shots. Not everyone can vacation in the Himalayas! And look at those fancy beach camels! Whoa!
You chose well when you picked these out. The top photo of Regency Street is indeed a very energetic photo. I love it.
I love that you rescue old slides like these. They're full of history, even if we don't know the people the places are mostly knowable. I have two boxes of old family photos that I plan to send to my sister to share with her kids. It's family history we get to hold in our hands.
WOW thanks for saving them and for running them through the magic machine- I love looking at other peoples old photos and these are utterly worthy! Art, for sure!! Passed out Trish and the last one of the weird little building , the lake , the rocks, stunning!
What a nice selection of photos. I love that you research the places in the photos and show us how they look today. I couldn't help thinking of how old those children are today. I bet they would love seeing that photo. The lady sleeping on the floor made me think of past holidays. Back when the day was full of food and friends and everyone was tired as the day winds down. That first photo makes me wonder how the streets are decorated today with the coronation on the horizon.
I'd be hard pressed to have a favorite of these nine. Maybe the last one because it looks like a painting. but I do like the beach camels too. and Puig Major. and Trish asleep on the floor still wearing her heels.
Hi Steve,
When I was in Boulder Colorado, 1980s, working on a book with my sister and a friend, I found a book of photographs taken by an old man who had died impoverished. He was an alcoholic, a bit difficult to deal with, he got thrown off the train between Denver and Boulder. But he went every year to the exact same place and took the exact same picture. After his death his work was nearly all thrown away. I recall he gave them to a cab driver he knew and they were then rescued somehow. The book is titled Boulder Then and Now. Fascinating. Yes, please save the old pictures.
Tom
My favorite is definitely the beach camels! I love that you do this and share them with us.
I don't have to make up a story for the photo of the lights on Regent's Street 1961. I was there. :)
Captured moments from the past fascinate me. Prior to digital, slides were much cheaper to develop so if you were taking a bunch of photos, it didn't cost as much as doing prints.
Great choices, Steve.
Don (or Edwin?) looks like he's about to hit Sandra over the head The sunbather on the cliff could be on the west coast of Ireland.
I'm glad you're doing this. My entire childhood was on slides, in trays used by the slide projector. Getting them out of the tray was literally painful. I left them all at my brother's house when we went full time RV. He put them in storage and then quit paying on the unit. Consequently, all of those years are lost. So, it's good that you're performing this public service.
You don't fault any photographer for dying? Well that's so kind of you Steve!
As for the slides, once they have been discarded or forgotten they seem to take on an entirely different character - like some kind of mysterious art form. I think of insects caught in prehistoric amber.
Love this trip down memory Lane xx
When you put these on Flickr, is there some way to include some key words so people doing a search might find them? (I don't do Flickr so it's a mystery to me.) You've gone to some effort to identify all you can about them, and I hope that work can be incorporated somehow. I love old pictures, too, for the fashions and furniture and house styles and cars, etc. Post WWII photos especially seem more classy than anything you'd see today. Now there's a blanket statement that could be easily challenged, I suppose :)
River: But I wonder how the camels feel about wearing all that stuff?
Mitchell: I both hope that and fear it. Some people might not react well, even if my intentions are good.
Caro: Yes! Exactly. Same idea.
Debby: There's that, for sure, but there's also just the artistic appreciation of the photos -- the composition, the captured moment in time.
Ed: Ha! That's a disturbing thought. I guess I'm doing the same with all of my own photos.
GZ: Isn't it? I may go back for more!
Jeanie: Absolutely! The great thing about that picture is that we've all been there!
Bob: Quirky photos, some of them, for sure.
Boud: Ha! It's a CLUE.
Bug: Except that it looks cold.
Ellen D: It's fun to think about, isn't it? I imagine many of the people in the photos, and probably the people who took them, are no longer with us.
Ms Moon: Yeah, Halliday must have had some resources to make those trips.
Robin: Keep them in the family if you can. It's fun to look at photos like these, disconnected from their owners, but it's better when you know the provenance of the pictures and who's depicted.
Linda Sue: I love the composition in the last one. The photographer obviously made an effort to capture the reflections in the water.
Sharon: Yeah, those girls would be in their mid-30's now.
Ellen: I noticed that too -- Trish kept her heels on!
TJ Davis: What a great story! Yes, there's a lot of historical value in images like these. I'd love to do something with them when I collect enough good ones.
Kelly: I'm glad you enjoy them. It's a lot of fun for me.
Mary: Excellent! You probably remember a much less blurry version. :)
Margaret: Oh, I didn't even think of that. I think photographers liked slides because the feeling was that the color was more accurate. (Though over time some of them deteriorate and get very blue or very red.)
Sabine: I'd guess the sunbather is definitely somewhere in Britain or Ireland, with those high oceanside cliffs.
Allison: Oh no! What a heartbreaking story. I wonder if you could track them down (depending on how much time has elapsed). They were probably sold to someone who bought the unit at auction. Maybe he or she would know where they went after that.
YP: Yes, it's true, when you look at a picture objectively, with no knowledge of the people or places depicted, it's a different experience from seeing an image laden with memories.
John: Someone's memory lane, anyway!
Jenny-O: I think people WERE more careful with their appearance in mid-century. Yes, photos on Flickr can be tagged and captioned, and I usually label them with whatever information I have. The tags and captions are all searchable.
You're a librarian of digital images. I love that last photo!
I love your explanation of why you save these old photos. They are a record of real lives. Trish! Seems like 1961 was a good Christmas.
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