A Box of Negatives

I’d seen the box a few times growing up, either in an attic or the back of a storage shelf but I never took much notice. Yet more negs to accompany the thousands of slides in plastic wallets and cuttings folders dotted about the house.

It was only after my dad’s death in 2007 that I began looking in a little more detail that I realised what they were.

There are four draws in the green sturdy box, the first three are completely full of 35mm negative sleeves the forth was half full with a small batch of 120mm negatives, some 1966ish colour 35mm slides and an 8mm film of the “moon conquest” from a daily newspaper.

The Negs
Most of the lightly mottled sleeves have been cataloged with a chronological index number, frame numbers and a small description. The catalog index numbers all match a more detailed log book which used to sit beside the box. 

Considering the varied places the box was stored in the negs are in pretty good condition, fluctuating temperates in the attic and damp cupboards have not adversely effected the images to any great extent. What is more interesting is the quality of the negatives seems to vary depending upon the brand and type of film being used. Some shoots were crystal clear, others a few days later appear noisy and soft, it could be just the image itself was off during the learning process my father was going through but some films have survived the past 60 years better than others.

These films would have mostly been developed at home.

I now keep the box in the house and continue to gradually scan the negatives. 

The time it takes to tidy the scans removing the scratches and blemishes means posting is slightly infrequent.