Lately, I have been developing film that has been sitting for approximately 20 years. It was never our intention to wait so long. This is a great risk because film’s life quality expectancy is so much less than 2 decades. After researching online for the best option, I determined that Walmart development still seems to be my best option. Even so, there has been close to a four-week turn around on when my photos arrive from the drop date. Every roll deposited for processing feels like a piece of myself is lost, even though I have no idea what is on these rolls.
These rolls were taken at a time when we were in the transitional period of moving from analog photography to digital. The progression of resolution was slow. Somehow, with time marching on, some of the most substantive memory capturing was erased from our collective family memory.
So far, this round of developing has been from the 2003-2004 timeline. Liam’s first 2 years. The depth of the amazing life we were living back then is now coming to life with the arrival of every new set of developed prints.
There is an anomaly I have discovered with this exercise. Scenic photos, photos of butterflies or goats for instance no longer seem as important when it has taken two decades to develop a roll of film. How could we have known this?
I am doing my best to keep the momentum going by taking one roll to be processed each week. Back in 2018, I started doing the same thing. Back then it was a two-week turnaround. Currently, I have 2 rolls in process and 13 to go. I know that great treasures await as I cling to the precipice of hope that these all make it safely through.
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