Closer inspection of the numerous boxes that I posted about as
'A box of vintage plates and paper', I found that two of the unsealed boxes had developed plates inside. One of the quarter-plate HP3 boxes contained fifteen plates, which I've scanned and posted to Flickr. The images revolve around mid-twentieth century outdoor life: mostly photographs of fish, either hanging or arranged by a gravel path, alone, or being displayed by (presumably) the proud fisherman, badly framed, and a girl in what looks like a night-dress. Then there are a couple of plates of a fallen tree, and also one apiece of a young boy, and an older man, each holding an axe over what appears to be a different fallen tree, and then two plates, one out of focus, the other with camera shake, of a man in a power boat.
See the complete set
here.
Very cool! I wonder what compelled the photographer to use glass plates in the mid-20th century.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of plates must have still been very common - I'm sure many peple who had bought a plate camera in the 20s or 30s would have kept using them through the next twenty-odd years. In the appendix of Silver By The Ton which lists the various plates and films made by Ilford, the dates show that there were a number of new emulsions being produced in plate form throughout the 1950s and production only ceased in the 1970s. Perhaps in 50 years' time people will wonder what made photographers in the early 21st century use film?
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