Boxes and Boxes, Oh My!

This week we’ve been delving into boxes of negatives from Mark. Each box contains dozens of envelops, each envelop contains large old negatives. All these negatives are from photographer Bill Forman. For years he worked as a commercial photographer in Mount Vernon. Being a commercial photographer meant taking pictures of a lot of various topics: weddings, funerals, roads, parties, store fronts, construction sites, sports teams, etc. It is the most amazingly random assortment! Luckily these negatives, which have spent many years in storage, are in pretty good shape. Every now and then we come across some negatives that are beyond repair and it is kind of sad. But we are so excited to look at all these images that have been hidden from the world for so long!

Sadly, we don’t possess a light table. We didn’t really anticipate working with so many negatives. Luckily the first day we had lots of natural light. Today I discovered that the light over my kitchen table is the perfect strength to stare into while it backlights a negative—not too strong, not too weak. Of course my neck will probably be cursing me for so much looking up…

I spent the morning pulling the specific negatives we want to use from the first huge box. Then Kari dropped off a second, smaller box, along with the report that there are two more huge boxes waiting for us. The first box had a lot of gems, but I’m not going to reveal *all* our secrets. This second box, not so much. I think I found four photos that are book-worthy. That box had a lot of portrait work, weddings, storefronts, and my personal favorite, batches of damaged car photos for an insurance company. There were even quite a few serious accidents, like this one. Didn’t I tell you that kitchen light works great?

I can’t wait for boxes Three and Four!