Uncovering the past
As more of our daily lives move to the virtual, and for photographers hard copy prints or transparencies become a rarity, it is a treat to find a project that focuses on the world of analogue photography.
Anton Orlov runs the Photo Palace Bus from his base in San Diego, a travelling darkroom project dedicated to this art, and it is this love of the process, as well as the end result, that has led him to not one, but two, magnificent finds.
The most recent involves unearthing glass plates taken in France during or at least around the time of World War I. Whilst on the look out for antique photographic books he came across a French stereoscopic camera called a Jumelle Bellieni, and nestled within he discovered a number of glass plates. He wrote on his blog: "Inside each film chamber I found a stack of neat little glass plate holders (12 total). While four of them were empty the rest contained the original thin plates of glass. The last thing that I ever expected to find though were negative images on those plates."
Combining digital with analogue he set about scanning the plates to reveal some delicate frames shot in what seems to be wartime France and you can see some of them at the top of this page. Perhaps someone out there can identify the location or units in the pictures.
Now that's pretty special, yet a few days later he posted another update showing an amazing collection of pictures that he had unearthed in 2005 of Russia during the revolution of 1917.
According to Orlov this is the work of John Wells Rahill, a pastor who graduated from Yale University in 1906, and who in 1917 joined the American branch of the YMCA, in particular the War Works Division. He was posted to the eastern front with the Russian troops in Valk, now on the border of Estonia and Latvia. However he spent only a few months having set up a facility called Soldiers House which offered some relaxation for the combatants before most of the YMCA staff were withdrawn via China and Japan.
Throughout this time he photographed extensively with his Kodak and on return Orlov writes he had the best of his images hand coloured and converted into Magic Lantern Slides. Orlov adds, Rahill also visited Moscow and there purchased more than 50 slides there from a professional studio.
Back in the US Rahill worked as a pastor though he delivered many lectures on the work of the YMCA during the War, yet Orlov states, it appears that those who worked in Russia were soon blacklisted and labelled as socialist sympathizers. Thus more than 500 glass slides, prints and notes along with the projector were put in storage and only came to light after Rahill's death when his grand daughter found them.
In 2012 Orlov purchased the collection and says, "My aim is to go back to Russia in 2017 and travel along the path taken by John and re-photograph the same locations 100 years after him. I would love to make a new set of Magic Lantern slides."
Here are a few of the magic lantern slides and a link to a film Orlov has made that show some of the black and white prints.
I wonder if in 100 years - old compact flash cards will be dug up to reveal long lost collections, I suspect not.