Recovered Eighties Photos

It was the mid to late eighties when my mother finally bought me a 35mm camera. A point and shoot Ricoh. Not the best but not the worst. I carried it everywhere taking pictures of everything.

If I had limitless cash at the time I would have developed all of those rolls of pictures then. Unfortunately I was a high school teenager who spent the little free money I did have on comic books. Instead I created a large box of undeveloped rolls that I lugged around with me for my entire life. It’s the pack rat in me.

Just last year I finally finished developing all those rolls. I would take a few in from time to time when nostalgia started to creep back into my life. A picture on Facebook or a call from an old friend would make me dig that box out again and head off with a few rolls to develop.

Although like most reunions, the rolls would lead to a momentary gratification. Then regret. Then melancholy. Maybe it’s just a side effect of the buyer’s remorse.

These particular photographs were developed just last year at CVS in Chelsea. One of the few chain stores that still develop black and white film. Apparently with the advent of digital cameras, black and white developing has become cost prohibitive.

I must say that many of those rolls never developed properly. Images lost forever. It is a miracle that these survived. The majority did not.

When I opened the pictures after twenty-five years of storage they took my breath away. There is something absolutely haunting about this particular set. Something crucial about me.

It all comes from one single roll. Due to the weather changes the roll was shot at least over the period of two days. If not more.

They are such quiet photos.

“There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave under the deep deep sea.”

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Monique

    11 May 2013

    I love this!

    1. Craig Ashby

      11 May 2013

      Sometimes I feel so strange saying this, but I love them too. I guess I have a dark, quiet streak.

  2. zs

    30 Jun 2013

    The tones look great on these. Looks like tmax (?) but with the dating i don’t know. did the cvs also scan them? the ‘dreamhouse’ shot is very well composed and has particularly nice tones.

    1. Craig Ashby

      30 Jun 2013

      I do believe it was TMAX. CVS did not do the scans. All scans are from my Canon scanner. I love Dreamhouse too! I named it because I have dreamt about going back to that house. Thanks for the comment, Zach!

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