Problem Slides

My compulsion to rescue old slides from oblivion extends especially to those that are damaged or deteriorating. Why this is, I have no idea. My dad had a very strong rescue impulse, mostly where animals and children were concerned. I have the same impulse for animals, houseplants and old pictures (and other stuff too). I guess it's hereditary.

Anyway, here are some examples of slides I got at Camden Market that needed some extra help.

Let's take the ones above on the right, both from 1978. I found them on the concrete floor beneath the slide box in the shop I was visiting, and they'd been trampled and begrimed and dampened by water from somewhere. I asked the proprietor if I could have them for free and he said yes. 

I could tell they were landscapes, but it wasn't until I got them home, cleaned them carefully with a barely moist Q-tip, let them dry out and had them scanned that I could see the images:

Neither one would win a prize, and I would never have bought them had they been pristine, but it was fun to salvage them from near-oblivion. Wonder if there's a story behind that bench?

Now let's look at the slide on the left in the top photo. It bears no date, it's an unconventional size and it's very dark. I can barely see through it when I hold it up to the light. Only when I point my slide viewer directly into the sun can I make out this image:

As you can see, the slide is also incredibly discolored. Sometimes slide film just doesn't age well, perhaps because of lousy processing.

I had it scanned, and although the woman at the scanning shop assured me she could cope with the unusual square format, what I got was a cropped version of the photo. I color-corrected it and wound up with this:

Looks like some kind of panto, or a children's theatre production. Peter Pan, maybe? The girl and the "mouse" look skeptical; the other two are totally into it. I wish I had the full frame, but maybe I can get that in a future scan.

Finally, there's this slide:

I'm holding it against the sky so you can see how dark it is. It's from 1968, and as you can see it's labeled "Austria -- Town of Glass Manufacture."

Here's the uncorrected scanned version:

I did some Googling and figured out this is the town of Rattenberg, which apparently is indeed known for its glass. Here's the corrected version, which I made into a black-and-white image because the color was so weak and wonky:

And that's about as good as this particular picture of Rattenberg is going to get. Incidentally, here's the same street today.

It can be a challenge to salvage pictures that are near death, but I enjoy it!