Found Film

[chuck_foreman1]

Hi CMC friends. I was on my way to work last week and noticed this negative lying on a grate in front of a residential

building. It was a 4x5 negative so it wasn't insignificant. I suspect some folks put out some junk to be picked up and this

blew out of, or away from the junk. This was in the city of Krefeld. It's a regular service from the city you simply call and

arrange a date and then you put out your "old everything" and they take it away. I of course know nothing about this pic.

My guess is a prewar ( fashion ) school girl on her beginning of school. I love her bag, it could of been bought yesterday.

Such things never go out of fashion. There are plenty of famous and infamous relations to the city of Krefeld.<div></div>

[John Seaman]

<p>A poignant find. Reminds me somehow of August Sander's portraits.</p>

<p>Odd that the lower part of the image is sharper.</p>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

Not sure whether this girl just starts school. First, she looks a bit too old, school started at the age of 5 or 6. Second, it was unusual to carry a briefcase in primary school. Usually the children carried knapsacks. They usually got their first "briefcase" when they finished the 4th grade (in Germany school starts at the age of 6 with the first grade, after the 4th grade at the age of 10 you could either stay on primary school, or visit medium school or college) to look a bit more "adult".

[Two23]

<p>I think it's sad that millions of family photos are being lost or simply thrown away all the time. As for the photo, it's possible the front standard on the camera was slightly bent backwards, causing the uneven sharpness.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[dave_s]

<p>+1 to what everyone else said-- it's a cool old photo, even if someone thought it wasn't worth keeping. Maybe it's just that the kid is looking directly at the lens, but it's like she's making contact across decades. When my kids were young, I used to tell them 'Look at the camera-- your grandchildren are looking back at you', which is sort of the same thing.</p>

<p>I suspect this kid saw some of the worst part of the 20th century. I hope it turned out well for her.</p>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>"Poignant" sums it up...Thanks for sharing, <strong>Chuck</strong>; somehow an image like this bridges time, and suddenly you're back, some place else, in another era.</p>

[ant_nio_marques]

<p>There should be an international found film database folks could browse!</p>

[Barry Dale]

<p>Krefeld, what state? Love the photo. Barry</p>

[paul_wheatland]

<p>This posting brings back memories of another poster Gene M from western part of MA USA who featured postings of found film subjects and the cameras that harbored these films. We haven't heard from Gene M lately, I hope he is doing well.</p>

[q.g._de_bakker]

Nordrhein-Westfalen, Barry.<br><br>I'm intrigued, Chuck. Not by the photo, but what you had in mind when you mentioned "famous and infamous relations to the city of Krefeld"

[chuck_foreman1]

Thanks for the response , I miss Gene M's posts and his commentary too. I did fwd the photo to a Krefeld Archiv site.

That will be the extent of preservation if they don't' request the negative per post as offered. While I found the "school"

bag somewhat enigmatic, I do feel the girl is not more than 6-8 ie starting school. I noted too the focus problem. The

negative is a bit oversize I can't scan it without rigging a new mask. There were some hand numbers on the bottom<div></div>

[q.g._de_bakker]

I don't think it is a focus problem, but an exposure time problem. The girls swayed a bit on her feet, with the feet being her most stable/stationary part. So they (and the background) are sharp, the rest of the girl and school bag not.<br><br>Difficult to date those shoes! Circumbellum, i'd say. If after the war, probably late 1950s. Did they still wear such aprons then?<br>But just guessing.<br>The Museum Ludwig in Köln may be a good place to do some research. But is the photo (a family snap) worth extensive research?

[chuck_foreman1]

@Q.G. I agree .. this is not my family...research?? just curios.. The few women I showed the photo to

commented on the "apron" as evidence of pre-war; one asked the other which (pre) war ? :) .. Shoes do

make it difficult as styles come in and out of fashion. Your analysis on the reason for un-sharp was my first

thought; the model/head moved. I'm thinking the other theory is also possible as the tendency on the whole

frame is sharper at the bottom.

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Nice find, Chuck. I have a somewhat similar situation. Back in the 1980's a person representing the estate of a deceased photographer who was active from the early 1930's to late 1950's gave my dad a lot of old negatives, some up to 4x5 in size. No one, at least locally, knew any of the people in the portraits. However, one particularly sharp 4x5 negative that survived showed people gathered outside a local movie theatre (late 50's) The cars were a good clue and under magnification I could read the movie title so I had a pretty good idea of the date the picture was taken.</p>

[glen_h]

<p>There were stories after a tornado last year of some people finding lost photo albums that had been sucked out of houses and blown far away, then trying to find the owners.<br>

Also, one where someone found a digital camera in a lake, recovered the pictures from the memory card, and found the owners after showing some one the nightly TV news program.<br /> Someone lost the camera from their canoe only days before.</p>