A while ago I posted about a Mamiya RB67 that I swapped with a friend. In return, she was supposed to use my Mamiya C2 for a while. Eventually, we did managed to make the swap and she took posession of my camera, and quickly fell in love with it. That lead to a search for one of her own.

When she finally found one, and a good one, it came with a bag of expired films. There were no dates on the films, but the owner said it had probably been in the loft for around 40-50 years. As such, I was given about 10 rolls to play with…4 had the words exposed visible on the side. Ooooh interesting.

So I decided to develop them. I didn’t give much thought to the first one, just plonking it in with some stuff I was already developing. As such, I used caffenol, maybe not the best choice. This film was very old, unknown content, very poor storage history and I didn’t want to spend too much effort on something I was sure would be a dud. Sure enough, when the roll came out of the tank, it was dark and had a streak right down the middle. I left it hanging to dry, not sure why, usually I would have just thrown it away.

When my own film was dry, I went to cut and sleeve it. Then I turned to the found film…wait a minute…the streak in the middle doesn’t go all the way down the film..there are frame breaks??!! Feint ones, but definite breaks. I decided to try and scan it, just in case. And oh boy, was I surprised.

The streaks were a naked lady!

Ok then, maybe I need to try something else for the next film? So I soaked the film before switching to rodinal stand development. The results still showed evidence of a badly damaged film, but it was much better and again a naked lady. It seemed like the same person. There was a full roll of shots, but I have obmitted any that clearly showed the model’s face.

Of course I quickly got to developing the final two rolls. The next one just contained 12 shots of an office space, each shot the same. I scanned one on my phone, but nothing more than that. I wanted to develop the last film.

This final film had less damage and clearer photos than the other three. Plus it was the lady again and not an office space. Not that there is anything wrong with offices, but I think we can all agree these shots are more interesting. A piece of time from long ago. Who is/was this lady? Why were the films left undeveloped for so long? I asked my friend if she had any information we could use to trace the model, but she said it was impossible.

So here are a couple more shots of a mysterious lady from long ago, shot on a Mamiya C2 with Ilford Selochrome 120 film. Again, this was a full roll of shots with her face visible in most of them. She looked happy and at ease, smiling and laughing in the photos.

I have developed found film before and you are always a bit worried about what will be ‘exposed’. Well, now I have finally found nudes so I guess nothing will surprise me in the future.

Addendum: I posted this earlier today and then received a comment which gave me pause for thought. So if you saw that version, wow, you were quick. But I have decided to edit the galleries to take out any photos with identifying features such as the face. After the comment, I asked a few friends and other bloggers what they thought about the post. The opinions were divided. Most said the photos were of historical value, a time and culture that has long gone. The photographer has definitely passed on and the model probably has too, but that doesn’t negate her feelings or privacy. The films were undeveloped, maybe for a reason I don’t know about. So I have edited this post with that in mind. Times have changed and in my excitement over the find I forgot that the internet is a weird and wonderful place. How often have things gone viral and people been found?