Vernacular Photography
posted by Ookpik at 10:53 PM
I began my interest in vernacular photography by a chance acquisition of over 10,000 negatives dating from the late 1920's through the early 1970's. Luckily, I knew what I had was something more than "someone's old pictures." This cache of old images became the impetus for me to create two Photoblogs: Ookpik’s Negativity and Mystery Ships Of The Great Lakes. Ookpik’s Negativity contains photos that I would like to know more about while Mystery Ships Of The Great Lakes features photos of ships that I am trying to identify.
4 Comments:
Kodak Disc cameras had negatives about that size, too, but the negs are attached to the axle so it can't be laid flat on the scanner. Did you scan that dandelion in with your regular negative scanner?
I scan Brownie b/w negatives on occasion, and lacking a real negative scanner I wind up taping down the negative and using a Booklight for indirect backlighting. The results are okay but it only works well for b/w negatives and the rare acetate positive.
Hi Mushroom,
Yes, I scanned the dandelion negative on my regular negative scanner. The Minox negatives come in little strips – similar to 35mm negatives – so scanning it wasn’t a problem.
Before I bought a negative scanner, I scanned my negatives in a similar manner to what you are doing. I took the negative and put it on the scanner glass and then put another piece of glass over it. I then backlit the negative with an old light from a movie camera. The piece of glass was used to keep the negative from melting/curling, as the movie camera light could get quite hot. The results were pretty good.
How can you tell that certain negatives come from a Brownie as opposed to some other camera? Also, what exactly is an acetate positive? :)
I guess it's a presumption that the negs came from a Brownie due to physical size. Could be other film types, sure, but Brownies were the most common camera at the time the pictures were taken. :)
Acetate positive = the thing is just like a negative but it's in unreversed color. Like a slide yet full size. I only have one or two of those and I don't recall where I found them. They depicted someone's funeral, that I know.
Thanks for the info!
I’m sure your presumption about the negatives being from a Brownie is correct. What size are the negatives? I’m guessing about 2.375” x 1.75”.
As for the acetate positives – I think I know exactly what you are talking about. I had a bunch of these but wasn’t sure exactly what they were. They looked like “oversized” slides but were not sandwiched in cardboard. They measured about 2.375” x 2.375”.
Thanks again! :)
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