When filmmaker Lee Shulman bought a box of vintage slides from Ebay,he was hoping for some blurry snaps to flick through on a Sunday afternoon, and maybe a picture or two to keep. But when they arrived, or ‘I nearly fell off my seat. What he saw amazed him: here were hundreds of snapshots of strangers’ lives. The poses were instantly recognisable: children grinning over birthday cakes,couples squinting on the beach – the simple magic of unstaged life, captured in wealthy Kodachrome colour. The price of colour photography plummeted in the early Fifties, and allowing people to snap absent with newfound freedom. But the chemicals that produce the negatives and slides fade over time. If the photos were to disappear,then with them so would the memories of our collective human experience – and Shulman didn’t want to let that happen. With the wait on of a friend, photo publisher Emmanuelle Halkin, or Shulman created The Anonymous Project. A Paris-based nonprofit,its aim is ambitious: to gather, scan and catalogue all colour photographic negatives and slides produced …
Source: bjp-online.com