The Mid Century in Color : These Found Ektachrome Photos Each Tell A Story

A gorgeous gallery fo fabulous Ektachrome photos from Thomas Hawk's collection

“For me, the pandemic sort of transferred my own passion for being out and about making photographs myself to collecting vernacular photographs, writes Thomas Hawk, a selection of fabulous found photos – all Ektachrome slides – you can see here. “At first, it was sort of something to work on during lockdown, but then as I dove deeper I found myself being as consumed by these images as I am my own.

“I feel like collecting, scanning and sharing these images with the world sort of gives them a second life beyond what would be almost certain obscurity and loss from our shared culture.”

 

Found Ektachrome Slide

Ektachrome slide – Paris, August 1975

“I suspect by the time all is said and done, I’ll have been able to archive hundreds of thousands of these photographs and hopefully provide a deeper look into our shared past for those who wish to explore. I think scanning the images in high quality, high resolution allows the viewer to go deeper and study them even more than they might holding a smaller version of the image in their own hands – although I do appreciate the experience of holding and examining a snapshot or viewing an old slide through a slide loupe.”

 

Ektachrome Slide

Italy, October 1968

Ektachrome Slide

Ektachrome Slide – Chicago, January 1972

Ektachrome has a distinctive look that became familiar to many readers of National Geographic, which used it extensively for color photographs for decades in settings where Kodachrome was too slow. In terms of reciprocity characteristics Ektachrome is stable at shutter speeds between ten seconds and 1/10,000 of a second.

 

Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide August 1973

Found Ektachrome Slide – date stamped on slide: August 1973

Ektachrome

Ektachrome – 1960s Las Vegas

Found Ektachrome Slide

Cable Car, San Francisco – August 1965

Found Ektachrome Slide

January 1961

Found Ektachrome Slide

July 1966

Found Ektachrome Slide

Lunch en route, Sequoia to Yosemite – August 1965

Found Ektachrome Slide

Found Ektachrome Slide – Las Vegas, 1960s

October 1965

Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide April 1966

Found Ektachrome Slide – date stamped on slide: April 1966

Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide May 1974

May 1974

Found Ektachrome Slide – October 1978

Found Ektachrome Slide

San Francisco, October 1965

Found Ektachrome Slide handwritten on slide, “Bill watching TV, January 10, 1958

Bill watching TV, January 10, 1958

Found Ektachrome Slide handwritten on slide, “grandpa and the gypsies, December 1959

Grandpa and the gypsies’ – December 1959

Found Ektachrome Slide hair

December 1965

December 1971

1963 – from a box labeled Models, Amherst

Via: Thomas Hawk, who is “trying to publish a library of 1,000,000 hand crafted, lovingly created, individually finished and processed photographs before I die. Mostly I’m focusing on America.”

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