Photographer, YouTuber and self-proclaimed weird lens aficionado Mathieu Stern is back at it again, this time with an interesting new video showing how he developed a number of 120-year-old photographs he found hidden within a time capsule in a family home.
In speaking with DPReview, Mathieu says he ‘found a box dating from around 1900 judging by the objects and the technic of the photos found inside.’ To help bring the negatives to life, Mathieu decided to develop the images using a time-appropriate method of making prints, cyanotype.
The six-minute video first walks through the discovery process of the time capsule and the items within. From there, Mathieu shows the process he used to create the cyanotype prints and concludes the video with an overview of all the images he found.
It’s an unassumingly touching video that shows how seemingly simple snapshots can oftentimes have some of the most profound emotions behind them.
The classic development method was quite interesting to watch but I would also like to see the negatives carefully scanned, cleaned up and displayed as an electronic image or printed on a modern printer. The preserved image quality of the original glass negative would be even more interesting to see and probably much better quality than what was presented using this old method.
"Time-Appropriate".....good lord. We're using modern plastics, containers along with the benefit of modern waste disposal methods for the chemicals used. Not to mention recording the process with a digital camera. I would also hazard a guess that the original photographer would prefer the plates be scanned and images shared to preserve the memory of her cherished pet which was their intent, and if they had a smartphone they would have used that instead. Another attempt to push process over content.
Certainly interesting, but not sure why Cyanotype is called a time-appropriate process. The process was introduced in 1842 by John Herschel, mostly for blueprinting, used mostly for that well into the 20th century. By the 1890s, most prints were made on gelatin-silver paper, which pretty much replaced albumen-silver. Film had been introduced, but dry glass plates were still in use, which this one probably is.
You will plug in this tiny adapter that will give you access to all the data directly in your brain implant bacause I assume we will be past the times of monitors. It will be more accessible than a vhs is today.
I wouldn't dare think I'm smart enough to predict 100 yearn into the future with whats going on in tech these days, but yeah something like a Cochlear implant. But the main point here was that there will be ways to access that data. These days although sometimes not easily available we have tech that can read older media so in the future it will be similar. Also there is much more stored on today's hard drives than there ever was stored on any storage solution so there will be a need to be able to access that. I would predict it will all be cataloged and easily searchable though.
Beautiful! A candid look at the past of Photography, a reflexion on our present and the wonders where all the future technology will take us, or leave us in the same square. Despite its commonality, the subject is very universal and reaches the emotions on each one of us.
That's soooo sweet :) I've got a stack of glass plate negs from the same time period. At least one of them has a cat in it. Will have to get around to printing them soon. Thanks for sharing :)
Headline is deceptive. He wasn't 'developing 120-year old glass negatives'. The negs were already developed. He was making cyanotype prints from the negatives. If he had found undeveloped glass negatives, that would have been a completely different story!
Just a few decades ago we "developed" film negatives/slides and prints. Multi step processes using the same terminology different chemicals. Many a long debate on which process was best and for what use. Right down to arguments on how many stop baths and which fixers. Hmmm sounds familiar
It is ironic that she photographed some of the few things that have not changed in 120 years (pets). If she had photographed her parents, or her sibs or her house, it would have been more interesting. We had the same ceramic photo dishes and contact print frames at home, but I just used normal paper and developer when using them (in the 1970's as a schoolboy).
Looks pretty damn sharp. The oldest photos of my relatives are from the 1900-1925 period, but they have much worse IQ. To be fair however I don't have access to the original negatives, so maybe just the copies aged poorly
--- hmmm photo "influencer" happens to find glass plates in own home, vertical & horizontal. (anyone reading this ever found time capsule in their own home...?) what glass plate camera easily allowed that? also, vertical very well composed, cat + fences in a modern way not usually seen in 1900...?? could be real deal, but...
Simple dry plate box cameras aren't that outlandish. You only see fancy studio cameras that need to be exclusively tripod mounted today because there's no other reason to go to the hassle and expense of using large formats. Back then, there would have been a lot more variety.
Here are a couple of examples from the era that are not overly complicated and could easily be used handheld, both horizontally or vertically.
I was thinking along similar lines as I watched the video. I was wondering how it could be that the very guy who found glass plate negatives hidden in his house also had the appropriate equipment, knowledge and skills to develop these particular negatives. Regardless, it was a video which held my attention which is an exceedingly rare occurrence.
@expressivecanvas .. I am quite sure he did not _develop_ the negatives. He took those old negatives and made prints. Since the author of the video is not a native English speaker my guess is this got lost in translation.
The writing on the glassplate sheets are not hat I would expect from 1900, from a girl. Secondly while cats and dogs were always loved, I would definitly expect a portrait of father and mother in the box...
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