Hana’s dad picked me up a folding Voigtländer Bessa camera at a car boot sale in Exeter. To my surprise, it had some film in it – although unfortunately I didn’t find out until I’d opened the back.
I developed the film in my darkroom, and found that, as expected, half the film was totally black but the rest had some faint images. One frame had some rust on it, as it had been in the camera for so long.
In the end, only three frames out of the eight produced any usable results once scanned and edited, so here they are.
The camera is rather older than the film, as the Bessa was first manufactured in 1929. The film used here was Ilford FP4 (note: not the newer FP4 Plus) which was produced from 1968 to 1990.
If you recognise the location in the first photo, or recognise the man in the second and third photos, please get in touch. I’d love to trace the person who forgot to take out their film, all those years ago 🙂 Chances are the man in the photos is still alive, if he was in his 30s back in the 1970s.
Jonathan Gazeley 
2 thoughts on “A face from the past”