Holidays
In 2008 I found a discarded package on the streets, full of 35mm films. These were old black and white rolls in their original cardboard boxes, surprisingly still in good condition. Strangely I did not suspect then that most of these films had already been shot and developed. I considered them to be just someone's supplies expired long ago and put them aside thinking it might be interesting to experiment with them some day. Of course, I forgot about this. It took me around a decade to come across the package again in my closet and to finally take a closer look at the boxes and their contents.
Pencil scribbles on the cardboard boxes dated the films between 1958-1968. I had discovered the archive of a Soviet Estonian family who, like most ordinary people, had been photographed mainly on their vacations and holidays. Going through more than a thousand frames, a vibrant and joyful world, full of light-hearted characters rolled started coming to life - like a black and white comedy classic. For a photographer, it is a rare and exciting experience to get such an intimate view into these people's lives and freely work with the negatives, some of which would be impossible to take for an outsider. I like to see how everyday snapshots take on new meanings in the gallery context as a result of my work and how the value of an amateur photographer’s archive grows with time.
A selection of the found negatives were hand printed in classic gelatin silver process in 50x60 cm size with author's selective toning technique.
Exhibited in Documentary Photography Centre in 2018, Tallinn, Estonia.
