Tuesday, September 8, 2015

118 Kodak Verichrome roll from 1940s


I received these rolls from a antique dealer in Fayetteville, North Carolina with 2 other rolls and spools of different vintage.The roll in the center never been exposed; the yellow color film (right) was empty. So what's left is this big bad spool of 118 Kodak Verichrome.118 format roll film was introduced by Kodak in 1900 and discontinued in 1961 but it was not in wide use after early 40s because the cameras made for this film format were out of production by 1930s.
I did my usual tests and developed the roll; a face appeared from the wet darkness:




This is an unusual set of pictures, for a found film. Young man in his late teens at graduation and after. The time frame is probably late 1940s (car's grille and woman's dress). As always, I wonder who was the photographer (parent, friend?) and why the pictures were not developed. I have a feeling that the photographer was old; probably grandparent of the young man. The one who received his 118-format Kodak folding camera somewhere in early 1900s, when s/he was also very young, and used it throughout the life developing and printing pictures -- that is, until this last roll. We don't know what exactly has happened but the film had been sitting exposed in the camera for a very long time. I know this because of the last frame; these white round spots are always there due to a slightly radioactive lens exposing film when camera is folded and left alone. The two white circles means that someone moved the film a bit at one point and again, let it sleep for years and decades. This last frame is a perfect metaphor of a passing time: one can see the shining cylindrical tube, the notorious way to heaven or hell, even the souls drifting to the center of the light and lingering on the edge...our young hero should be close to 90 today, one of these souls, leading the way for all of us.

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1 comment:

  1. Althigh these are the great memories, world has changed alot.

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