500,000

 

 Sometime in the last couple of days, The New Found Photography went over 500,000 individual page views.  I have no idea if that's impressive or not, but just to mark the milestone, a repeat from my very first post. 

2500

 

This is my 2500th post. As I've written before, I didn't start The New Found Photography because I was desperate to share my old photo collection with the world but because I couldn't figure out any other way to be able to see it myself without having to root around in dozens of unorganized boxes. So, this is from my very first post from 2009. I picked up some glass negatives at a small antique store in Washington state and hand-printed them myself. It's the dream of every photo collector to find a complete set of photos from an undiscovered talent. Think Vivian Mier. The antique dealer who sold me these negatives had purchased a collection of negs from an estate in Montana and judging by the quality of the few I purchased, perhaps he had run across an important photographer, but sadly decided to break-up the collection and sell them for $5.00 each. 

200,000

Sometime during the wee hours of this morning, The New Found Photography went over 200,000 unique page views.  These three photographs started things off.  I found the original glass negatives at an antique store in Washington state.  The seller had picked up hundreds of negatives from an estate sale in Montana, and decided to sell them off individually.  By the time I found these, the collection had been pretty much picked over.  I think it's the  dream of every photo collector to find a secret cache of photos from an unknown, yet talented photographer.  Sadly, with this lot broken up, and sold off,  we'll never know what the complete archive had to offer.

Oh, and I hand printed them back when I was still working in a photo lab.

Post Number 1,000

I started The New Found Photography as a way to impose some sort of order on a mess of a collection.  While I've added text from the very first post, I expected few visitors, no comments, no followers, and I sure as hell never expected to hit the 1,000 post milestone.  The fifteen photographs that I've chosen to re-post, to mark the occasion, are far from representative.  Are they my favorites?  They are right now, but if I made a choice tomorrow, there would be changes.  They're not the most popular.  A couple of them have had a lot of views, and some, almost none.  Is there a post number 2,000 in the future?  I've still got a lot of photos in the collection that have never seen the light of day.  And, despite my ever shrinking income, I still visit antique stores, thrift shops, EBay, garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets.  Who knows where it will all end.

Sperry Glacier

I've been to Sperry Glacier, and I suspect that's why I wanted this postcard.  It's on the north slope of Gunsight Mountain in Glacier National Park in Montana. It's not a short hike, but it is doable as a day trip.  The last time I was in Glacier was at least 15 years ago, and Sperry was a lot smaller than it is in this photograph, and if predictions hold true, it will be gone, along with the other surviving glaciers in the park, by 2020.

This card is postmarked "ANACONDA MONTANA, JUL 18, 2-P.M. 1916"  It's addressed to "Miss Marg Bryan, 2732 Renick St., St. Joe, Mo."  No message, though.  Glacier National Park was established in 1910.

50,000 + How It All Started

I just took a quick look at the stats page and noticed that, sometime in the past week or so, I went over 50,000 page views. I have no idea whether that's a big number for a blog like this or not, but when I started this I was lucky to get thirty or forty views a month, so it seems big to me. Anyway, to mark the 50,000 milestone, I thought I would do something I've never done before. I'm repeating myself. These seven images, all hand printed, by me, form the original glass negatives, are the very first photographs I posted on The New Found Photography.

I think it must be the dream of every collector of old photographs to walk into some out of the way junk shop and find a box of photos by an unknown photographer of real talent. I sometimes wonder, if circumstances had been a bit different, if this could have been my discovery. It was back in the good old days when I had a full time job, a decent income, and three weeks of paid vacation a year. I had just finished a backpacking trip in Montana, had cleaned up, packed the car, and was headed home to Los Angeles, when I made an impulse stop at an antique store, well more of a junk shop actually, and found these glass negatives. The owner of the place told me that he once had a crate of images, all from the same source. He thought that there must have been 500 or so, but he had broken up the collection. He had given some of them away, thrown some out, (Not because they were damaged or not very good, but because they were taking up too much space.) and had been selling the rest for a couple of bucks a piece. He had about forty or so left, but for reasons I've never understood, thought credit cards were for suckers, and it was a cash only sale. I bought these seven, got his phone number, and after I got home called him up, and offered to send him a check for the rest, but he said, "Nah, it's too much work."

I wonder what those other negatives might have been like. And I also wonder who took them. Perhaps it was a local professional or maybe an amateur who had a primitive darkroom in the fruit cellar. When I look at the farm photograph, I don't see the mother of the family, so I sometimes speculate that the photographer was a woman. We will never know, and any chance of finding out has, I think, been destroyed by a road side vendor, who thought more highly of telephone poll insulators, old barbed wire, and 50 year old beer bottles than he did of a box of glass negatives, and the unknown photographer who recorded a small, intimate piece of Montana history.

Ostriches in Los Angeles

All that meat, giant eggs and a fashion scene dominated by big hats with even bigger feathers. So why aren't the great plains of the United States covered in herds (flocks?) of ostriches? Another American get rich fad fails to catch on. The message written along the edge of the card reads, "My dear little friend. Where is my little red-headed girl that I don't hear from her anymore. I so often think of you and wonder if you are in the Park again. Do let us hear from you. Mr. S. send regards & love from your friend Mrs. Sisco." Mailed to, "Miss Frances Schroeder c/o Vern Stockwell, Billings, Mont" There is a space on the back of the card reserved for a return address, "Mrs. Charles O. Sisco, #4901 Vermont Ave Square, Los Angeles, Calif." Post marked, "LOS ANGELES, STA. C. JUL 7, 5:30 PM 1908."

Irene White of Plains, Montana

Another real photo postcard. Written on the back, "Miss Irene White, Plains, Mont-P.O. Box 468-24 years old the 23 of Oct. From Joe" Never mailed, no stamp, cancellation or date. In 1905, the town of Horse Plains, dropped the Horse and became just Plains. So after 1905. The very first post on this blog was prints made from glass negatives purchased in Montana. I'd take a look, and so should you.

Montana Glass Negatives

One of the reasons that I hate antique dealers is that they break up collections of photographs to increase their profits. I purchased these images in Montana. It's kind of the dream of all photo collectors to discover a large collection of images from an unknown, though clearly, talented photographer. Looking at this group of images, I think I may have found one, but with only a handful of the negatives still left together, we'll never know. I think the image of the farm family one of the strongest photographs I've ever seen. The portraits of the cowboy and beekeeper are amazing. I showed these to a movie costumer who dated the clothing to the late 19th to early 20th century. Because there is no mother in the farm scene, I think the photographer might have been the mother, making her glass negaties, at home, in the kitchen. Click on images to see them in a larger window.

I used to work in a photo lab where I had access to an 8x10 enlarger. I was able to use it to make high quality blow-ups. These images were made directly from the negatives, rather than copy negs made from contact prints.