Thursday 28 December 2017

A viewer for 35mm strip films?

There was a request from a neighbour last night. Did we, or any of the other people on his list, happen to have a viewer for "these strip films"? 
The Senior Cat said, "He means 35mm film - and no, we haven't."
He had to speak to my brother anyway and asked him if he had any ideas. The discussion went quite technical. I didn't bother to try and follow it.
The film strips belonged to our neighbour's late brother. It has taken M.... a long time to get around to looking at these and other things after the appalling manner of his brother's death. 
The images will almost certainly bring back all sorts of memories. I don't imagine that they will be easy to look at.
We have a good many photograph albums stacked away in a shed. They contain photographs mostly of the two nephews who grew up here. My brother-in-law took many of the photos. I haven't looked at them in years. My mother would sometimes. Once in a while she would even sit with Middle Cat's mother-in-law and they would exclaim over how the boys had grown and so on. Yes, they were still young. The older of the two had only just started secondary school when his grandmother died. Now, he's a full blown doctor, about to get married. 
M...'s request reminded me though of how important such things are. It is said that when people lose all their possessions in a fire, flood or other disaster that one of the things that one of the things they most regret losing is photographs - those moments forever held still in time, a reminder of something past. 
My immediate family took very few photographs when I was a kitten. They were of course relatively expensive to take. My maternal grandmother had a camera. I appear in almost none of the remaining photographs. I can think of just three. My siblings appear in more - but not many.  None of us like to be a photographer's subject. 
In a way I regret there aren't more of us when young. It might have been useful when we try to explain just what it was like when we were "that age". 
I asked the Senior Cat, "What happened to the group photographs from school?" 
He had no idea. I have a suspicion my mother, who would have been the one to do it, never bought them. She simply would not have been interested. It would not have occurred to her that they might have been a record for us as well as her.
I suppose it doesn't matter that much but family photographs might. They certainly matter for M... It might be painful to see them but the fact that he now feels he wants to look at them suggests that he is, at last, learning to live with his brother's suicide. 
I admire him for wanting to see those photographs and I hope someone can help him do it.
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For M - film clubs may be able to help? Photographic shops?

For you - the schools may have kept a copy of each class photo as part of their archives, or the local library or newspaper may have a copy. Even the State Library.

We were looking at old photos yesterday, throwing away ones that none of us has any recollection of the people or objects photographed (lots of babies, and a horse, and slightly blurred multiples...)

Thank you for your interesting and varied blogs. I have been hoping to start one for years, as it would be a good way of keeping in touch with friends and relatives, and - like the old photos, remind us of what is happening and then what has happened.

LMcC

catdownunder said...

There are thousands of them apparently so it might even be worth his while to see if he can buy a bit of secondhand equipment. He has "put it on the back burner" for the moment as it is such a big task. Could be an interesting one though as his brother was a quite well selling artist.
And yes, I should look for those photographs - I think the primary school may have copies although they don't have the registers unfortunately.
Why not start a blog? You leave intelligent comments on mine so I am sure you could do even better!

Adelaide Dupont said...

Catdownunder:

was wondering if your Historical Society kept the school photographs for that period and afterwards?

And the Public Records Office?