Uncategorized

In 1973 American singer/songwriter Paul Simon released a song called Kodachrome which contained the lyrics:

“Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away”

My auntie recently sent me a large box containing over 2,000 slides taken by my grandmother, Thelma, mostly in the first half of the 1980s when she was in her seventies. It contains predominantly Kodachrome slides which still retain to this day those nice bright colours. Kodak did in fact takes its Kodachrome away in 2009 when it finally ceased production of Kodachrome 64 film. The last roll of Kodachrome film was developed in the USA in 2010.

I am in the process of digitising all these slides and have started sharing some images with the extended family and, thanks to the quality of the Kodachrome process, there has been very little deterioration in the film.

Thelma lived most of her life around Murwillumbah on the far north coast of NSW. Her interests were her family and the day to day events in and around her home town. She had seven children and many grandchildren. Her first husband, my grandfather Jim, died in 1979 at the age of 66. Thelma remarried in 1984 and her second husband, Dawson, died about three years later. After Jim died she learnt to drive for the first time, much to the consternation of some of her children. However, it did allow her to regularly make the short drive from Condong to Murwillumbah to photograph what was going on in town.

The majority of photos in the collection are from just before Thelma’s second marriage and the three or four years after. During this time she captures days trips around the North Coast, family events and the mundane commercial development of downtown Murwillumbah. There is an extended series of photos showing the demolition of old homes in several streets near the centre of town to make way for the construction of government buildings and the first large supermarket complex. Thankfully, almost every slide is meticulously labelled. Perhaps my grandmother was a conservationist at heart. She may not have used that word but I get the impression from looking at her slides she felt it was a great shame the old weatherboard homes had to go to make way for a new Coles.

Everything looks worse in black and white?

Tony
SilverTone Studio

I have pressed the go button on the SilverTone Studio website so I invite you to have a look at the photography services I provide.

Home

Photography is at a very interesting point in its development and history. Most people up to the age of about 30 have never held a film camera in their hands and have only known photography in its digital form. Increasingly this is experienced now only through the smartphone. The ‘selfie’ is probably the most ubiquitous form of photography being practised.

In my younger days you were usually a Canon or Nikon person as 35mm film photography dominated the popular photography market. I remember being a little shocked in about 2003 when someone told me that these two iconic brands had been overtaken by Nokia as the world’s biggest camera manufacturer.

There is, however, a growing interest in film photography by the under 30 generation. Cynics and curmudgeons might call this a vacuous, hipster infatuation as plastic medium format cameras like Lomo and Diana gain popularity among the smart set. Lowfi, imperfect images apparently being a reaction to the crass and infinitely sharp output from the smartphone. I don’t really mind as long as the demand for film continues! Many people over 30 are also returning to film, particularly the black and white medium, in search of something which seems more authentic, artistic and less instantaneous in its production.

I have spent almost 40 years working with film and maintain a fully functioning darkroom to develop and print black and white photographs. I am also very interested in preserving family history and encouraging people to protect and save negatives, slides and original prints. The options available today for high quality book production from digital images is one of the most exciting developments of the last 10 years. It has never been easier to create a book to share with family members or friends. These physical artefacts are much more likely to survive than zeroes and ones stuck on a hard drive somewhere.

If you have found a shoe box full of old slides, negatives or prints and don’t know what to do next, then perhaps I can help. There is magic lying within and it deserves to be exposed to a new audience!

Tony
SilverTone Studio

When all you have is a print and it is fading, marked or in need of restoration. Perhaps you have a valuable or cherised family photo you would like to copy and share with other family members.

Silvertone can scan or rephotograph any photo and create a digital image file suitable for sharing on social media sites or for printing at any size or quality.

Refer to the Pricing page (see top menu) for indicative rates for scanning or re-photographing original prints.