Roadside diner on saturated slide film
Colour photograph on saturated 1950s slide film, full colour. A roadside diner with red vinyl seating seen through its own window in hard midday sun, the reds rendered dense and heavy while the shadows under the counter fall to complete black with no detail recovered in them at all. Slight warmth overall, very fine grain. Camera at chest height from the pavement. Palette of deep red, cream enamel and hard blue sky. Full bleed with no border. 4:5.
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Tintype with the image reversed
Tintype portrait on a small blackened iron plate, warm monochrome, with the image laterally reversed so the sitter jacket buttons fasten on the wrong side and a shop sign behind them reads backwards. A standing man with a pocket watch, photographed against a plain painted backdrop in soft daylight. Dense blacks with a slightly metallic silver sheen in the highlights, scratches across the surface and a chipped corner. Photographed at a slight angle so the plate catches the light. 1:1.
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Garden party with the date burnt in
Colour snapshot on 1980s consumer print film, full colour. A garden party with a trestle table and folding chairs on a lawn, lit by direct on-camera flash against fading evening daylight so the foreground is bright and the background falls dark. In the lower right corner, a small date stamp burnt into the emulsion in glowing orange seven segment digits reading 12 07 87. Grain visible in the sky, slight warm cast. Full bleed with no border. 4:3.
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Light leak running in from one edge
Colour photograph on 35mm film with a light leak flaring in from the right edge of the frame only, a band of hot orange that is brightest at the very edge and fades inward across about a third of the picture before disappearing. Behind it, a couple sitting on a harbour wall in late afternoon. Sprocket holes visible along the top edge where the leak has fogged past the frame line. Warm colour, moderate grain. Full bleed. 16:9.
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Two half frames on one strip
Half frame colour film strip photographed as an object, two separate vertical images sitting side by side within one frame width, divided by a thin black frame line, with sprocket holes running along the top and bottom edges of the strip. The left image shows a market stall, the right image shows a tram passing. Colours slightly faded, fine grain, both frames slightly different in exposure. Frame numbers printed small along the lower edge. 16:9.
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Hand coloured seaside view
Hand coloured seaside print from the 1930s, a monochrome photograph with transparent colour applied over it in confident flat washes that are decorative rather than accurate, the sea a uniform bright turquoise, the sand an even warm gold and the bathing huts each a single clean colour. A row of huts along a promenade with small figures. The underlying monochrome still visible in the shadows and the sky left almost untinted. Visible brush edges where the washes meet. 5:4.
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Garden scene on an autochrome plate
Early colour autochrome photograph from around 1910, full colour but soft and muted throughout with no saturated tone anywhere. A woman in a long dress standing among roses in a walled garden in diffuse afternoon light. The image is broken up by a coarse irregular pointillist grain from the dyed starch screen, most visible in the sky and the flat areas. Long exposure so the leaves have moved slightly. Palette of dusty rose, sage and warm grey. Glass plate edge visible. 4:3.
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Instant print with a chemical bloom
Instant photograph with the characteristic wide white plastic border and a deeper margin along the bottom edge. Inside the frame, a kitchen table at a birthday with a cake and paper plates, lit by a harsh direct flash that falls off sharply into the corners. An uneven pale chemical bloom washes across the upper left corner of the image area only. Slightly soft, low contrast, warm colour skewed toward yellow. Fingerprint smudge on the border. 1:1.
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Slide in its cardboard mount
A 35mm colour slide in a white card mount photographed lying on a lightbox, the image glowing brightly through from behind while the card mount stays flat and matt. The slide shows a mountain lake under hard sun. Handwritten in pencil across the top of the mount, a short date too small to read clearly. The card slightly foxed at one corner, a fingerprint on the film surface. Colours dense and luminous with deep blacks. Shot square on from directly above. 4:3.
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Hand tinted portrait with the colour off register
Hand coloured studio portrait from the 1920s, a monochrome photographic print with transparent colour applied by hand on top, the tint sitting slightly off register so the pink on the cheeks and lips overlaps the edges and the blue on the dress runs a little past the seam. A young woman seated three quarter on against a painted studio backdrop, soft even north light. Only the skin, lips, dress and a single flower carry colour, everything else left in warm monochrome. Visible brush strokes in the tint. 5:4.
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Redscale frame shot through the base
Redscale colour photograph, film loaded backwards so the light passes through the orange base first, rendering the entire frame in reds, rusts and deep oranges with no blue or green anywhere at all. Only the brightest areas hold any yellow. A row of pylons across an open field under what would have been a bright sky, now a burnt orange. Heavy contrast, dark corners, visible grain. Camera at eye level. Full bleed with no border. 3:4.
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Negative with the orange mask showing
A strip of 35mm colour negative film lying on a lightbox, photographed square on from above, showing the image inverted and sitting on the characteristic strong orange base that tints the whole frame. Skin appears blue grey and the sky appears pale orange. Sprocket holes and manufacturer edge printing run along both edges. Two frames visible with the frame line between them. Fine dust and a fingerprint on the emulsion. Bright even backlight. 4:5.
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School portrait with a laser backdrop
A school portrait from the late 1980s, a child of about ten seated at a slight angle in a knitted jumper against a mottled blue backdrop overlaid with a bright pattern of thin sprayed light beams radiating from one corner. Hard frontal flash with a visible catchlight and a sharp shadow on the backdrop behind. Slightly warm colour, moderate grain, high gloss print surface. Photographed as a print with a thin white border. 4:3.
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Mountain lake on dense colour slide
Colour landscape on dense slide film from the 1960s, a still mountain lake with a reflected peak under a cloudless sky that deepens from pale at the horizon to an almost navy blue at the top of the frame. Hard clear high altitude sun. Saturated greens in the pines and deep shadow with no detail beneath them. Very fine grain, sharp throughout. Camera at eye level from the shore. Palette of deep blue, black green and grey rock. Full bleed. 5:4.
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Album page with corner mounts
A photo album page from the 1960s photographed flat, a matt black paper leaf holding three small colour prints attached at their corners by little black diagonal paper mounts, arranged unevenly rather than in a grid. The prints show a picnic, a dog on a lawn and a portrait on a doorstep, all slightly faded toward warm. Short handwritten captions in white pencil beneath each, too small to read as words. Soft even light from above, the page slightly curled. 4:5.
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Wet plate portrait with the plate defects left in
Wet plate collodion portrait from the 1860s in warm monochrome, the emulsion poured by hand so the plate carries visible streaks, a thin patch along one edge and a ragged uneven border where the coating ran out. A seated man in a heavy coat holding very still, eyes sharp and hands slightly blurred by the long exposure. Shallow focus falling away fast from the eyes. Soft north window light from the left. Palette of warm sepia and cool silver highlights. 4:5.
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Family beside a car on expired stock
Colour photograph on expired 1970s consumer film stock, full colour and not desaturated. A family standing beside an estate car on a gravel driveway under flat overcast daylight. The stock has shifted so the whites have gone cream and the shadows have gone magenta, contrast is low and milky, and heavy halation blooms around the chrome bumper. Dust specks and two fine emulsion scratches running vertically through the frame. Soft corners from a cheap lens. 4:5.
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Photo booth strip of four
A vintage photo booth strip photographed as an object, four small frames stacked vertically with thin white gutters between them, each lit by the same brutal direct flash with no fill at all against a plain dark curtain. The same young woman in all four, her expression changing between them while the light and framing stay identical. Slightly greenish colour, heavy contrast, blown highlights on the forehead. The strip trimmed unevenly at the bottom. 1:1.
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Postcard with the sky painted in
A 1950s colour postcard of a seafront promenade, printed with a sky that has clearly been retouched by hand, an even flat graded blue with no cloud and a slightly hard edge where it meets the rooflines and the pier. The rest of the image photographic, with strolling figures and striped deckchairs in oversaturated colour. Slight misregistration of the printing inks. A narrow white border with the corners squared. 16:9.
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Peel apart print with the residue left on
Peel apart instant print from the 1970s photographed as an object, with the image area slightly uneven at the edges and a band of dried gritty chemical residue along the left side where the developer was pulled through the rollers unevenly. Inside, a man in overalls standing beside a motorcycle in a garage under a bare bulb. Warm low contrast colour, slightly soft, a faint roller streak across the lower half. The print curling gently at one corner. 4:5.
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