Anonymous – 01

Untitled (Anonymous #01) copyright 2014 Douglas Stockdale

Another project that has been lurking in the background is the concept of personal privacy and concerns with identity theft. I have worked with a couple of different ideas on how to explore this concept. Then I realized that the most elegant might very well be the most direct and simple.

Okay, perhaps with a subtle twist. A buddy of mine from the Photo Exchange, Sandor (aka Demco) Demlinger gave me an almost complete box of 120 Provia 100F Fujichrome (RDP III 120) that was mildly  outdated. With an expiration of Oct 2006, even though I think Demco kept this film in his fridge, I expected that I might get a color shift or some other odd artifact in the developed film. So I photographed a series of subjects and dropped the film off for processing (for a few bucks more, I also get a low-res digital scan of the images versus having to scan the transparencies on my Nikon 8000)  for normal processing.

Regretfully the processed transparencies came back looking perfect. No color shift or anything else that appeared odd. Perhaps a testament to the enduring quality of the FujiFilm. So I guess this project will progress without a subtle twist.

Now I need to evaluate the results. One aspect I am looking at is the amount of background included around the yellow pouch. How might it look if the image was tighter within the borders of the pictorial frame? Nice thing about 120 film, I have plenty of leeway to crop the image without much derogation of the image, and for how this appears, see below.

hmmmm, the tighter image is worth further consideration, so I just might move in a bit closer when I make my initial exposure.

Demco also gave me some small 10-pack bricks of really expired 120 Ilford Black and White film to mess around with: the FP4  expired in June 1983, Pan F expired in June 1984, and some HP5 that expired in July 1982. Okay, some 120 film that expired 32 years ago might get a bit more interesting ;- D

Cheers!