Monday, September 22, 2014
The Care and Feeding of Color Film
I recently picked up a neat stack of 60's photography magazines, each one loaded with stunning photos, and helpful hints on how to take a better pic --and we'll see some attractive examples in an upcoming post. But as much as I love photography, I have to admit to loving cartoony key art from this era more, as seen in this article by David B. Eisendrath, Jr., the apparent noted authority on film protection. Notes against heat, cold storage, causes of faulty color, deterioration, processing, etc... it's all here, and when paired with awesome illustrations by John Seneres, it suddenly becomes worthy of an AEET post (I especially love the use of a vampire as a symbol of how to completely drain the life right out of your color film, ha!) I rounded out the post with some fun ads from the back of the mag, everything here being from the July 1960 issue of Popular Photography Vol. 47 #1.
(Cover model is Clo Allegro, photo by Charles Varon)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNah, there will always be people who prefer to take pix with an actual camera on film (I think I know at least 4 dozen of these people personally), and ya never know, I mean the way some "dead" things return to life --see vinyl records and old man hats for hipsters, lots of things may just be back before you even know it (please don't let it be 80's and 90's style animation though!)
ReplyDeleteBRING ON THE JETPACKS ALREADY!!!
Yeah, there will certainly be a burgeoning niche market of real film purists coming along--like people who dig their own clay or make their own paints--just as soon as the practice can really be declared totally dead. All that has really passed on is the era of mainstream access to analog photography, and that's nothing to mourn one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteAnd screw the cloud too, though I assume you're absolutely right about it. This trend away from ownership and physical objects is a real bummer to me. I suspect I'm trapped in a passe mindset when it comes to authenticity, but I'll own it.
PS, I love the vampire's long arms. That's a poetic segue, my friends!
Maybe taking pictures with film will be the Apple of the world of photography, a niche market that the ultra hip and cool people do.
ReplyDeleteThe drugstore near me took out the one hour photo developing machine, now any film that needs developing has to be sent away to so me distant lab to get the pictures done.
That is the drawback of technology, it gives with one hand and takes with the other. Face to face discussion is being replaced by video conferencing or texting, books are slowly being replaced by kindle, 3D printers are looked upon as the desktop factory of the near future while the skilled factory labor who used to make things will need to become 3D printer repair technicians to survive. The world is changing for better or worse, though sadly in some cases for the worse.
Reminded I went to a Goodwill yesterday and found a roll of 35mm film on a shelf that had it's film spooled out of it. Why it was there I'll never know.
ReplyDeleteHow about the art in this post, anybody?
ReplyDeleteok taskmaster!!
ReplyDeletei love the illus in the article but my total fave images are the Free Aids to better Photography booklets. man those are freaking great! I also love that Kolor Brite logo.
now my two cents on the future of humankind....
and i personally am not a fan of living amongst piles of crap that i rarely look at and have to unstack box after box to get to - so I am one of those that has done away with all my negative photography equipment and will be scanning my 18 gal tupperware bin of negatives and slides over the winter. i miss printing in a darkroom but not enough to keep all that stuff around.