Dani Irwan's photostream

A few months ago, my doctorate co-supervisor came over to Malaysia for a short trip. He wanted to see how I was doing and how much progress I've made (not much). Aside from the usual talk & discussions about my PhD matters, he was also on a mission: he wanted to give me his late grandfather's old TLR camera, a Minoltaflex Mark I.

Needless to say, I was very honored. Thank you Dr. Kohei!

When Dr Kohei pulled the camera out of his bag, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was still in good shape. Sure, both lenses were dirty & needs cleaning, but that's par for the course. The leather case was falling apart, but it still could be restitched if I was so inclined. Other than that, there was nothing really wrong with the camera. The lens opened up & stopped down correctly..even the Chiyoda Crown shutter still worked flawlessly & sounded spot on.

Upon opening the camera back, I was again surprised to see a roll of film still inside! All I could see was the paper backing, and in the split second or so before I closed the back again I surmised that there's still a few frames of the film left. I quickly exposed the remaining few frames to light in the next several days. While doing so, I had to make gross assumptions on exposure, as I had no idea what film it was, it's sensitivity and also how long it's been there. In the end, I decided to give it more exposure & development time in order to have the best chances of coming up with usable photos. Remember that at this point, I had no idea what photos were already shot on the film, and if my assumptions were correct. But was I excited? Hell yes. Part of the fun with found film.

After finishing the entire roll (I only got to shoot about 2-3 frames), I pulled the film out of the camera. Turns out it was Fujifilm Neopan SS 100. Never having used the film before, I again had to hazard a guess on what development time to use. After some thought, I decided 9 minutes in Rodinal 1:49 would do.

I was rewarded with this. A photo of Dr. Kohei's aunt, taken at Hakone, Japan. Apparently his grandfather shot this around 1965 or so. For some reason, from then on until his death in 2002, Dr Kohei's late grandfather forgot all about this Minoltaflex of his. He never even took out the film to get it processed. I'm not sure why. So, this was the first time anyone has seen this photo, including Dr Kohei & his family. Needless to say, they were all very excited.

I was excited as well. It's amazing how well the film has held up all these years. It's still relatively flat and not that curly. The paper backing protecting the film is still intact. Those blotches & blemishes are to be expected, though, nothing can be done about that. I doubt a digital sensor can retain a latent image as long as this roll of film has. A CD or flash drive can only retain it's data for a decade or so.

Oh, and that shutter. Even after 50 years of neglect & disuse, the mechanism & timings are still spot on. Will the shutter mechanism of today's cameras last as long?

Before you leave me, think about this: a 50 year old image, hidden away inside a forgotten film inside a neglected camera and only now made visible again to the persons involved after almost a lifetime.

Again, the magic of found film. Pulling memories out of time.

A library overlooking the sea.

Scan from a 5x7 silver gelatin print.

Printed on Ilford MGIV RC Deluxe 5x7 Glossy paper.
Developed in Ilford Multigrade paper developer.

Leica Leitz Focomat IIc
V-Elmar 100mm f/4.5

Exposure time: 6 secs at f/16.
No contrast filter.
Slight burning-in at upper right corner for 3 seconds.

Scan from negative can be found here.

To this very day, I can still close my eyes and see my late grandfather & grandmother standing at that doorway and waving to us as we took our leave and went back home to leave them in solitude.

Apparently, some things you never forget.

This is the middle staircase. It's where you'd normally enter if you didn't want to join the more 'formal' guests in the living room at the front. And it's also where you'd enter the house if you didn't want to join the ladies toiling away in the kitchen.

So that normally meant us boys & younger men :)

When my father was in medical school, he bought a complete human skeleton, second hand of course. It reportedly came from India. Anyhow, my father stashed that skeleton under the bed in a particular small bedroom, much to the dismay of his family.

That bedroom is the first one you'll see as you enter my grandparents' house from these stairs. My father had that skeleton named John. That particular bedroom then forever more became known as 'Bilik John' (John's Room).

See, every family has a skeleton in the closet :)