Quick morning random

[urbpan]

The internet is full of a lot of garbage, just ask my dad. But it's also full of amazing cool things. Reason alone for the internet to exist is Awesome Tapes from Africa. In many parts of the world, cassette tapes are still the currency of music, especially (one imagines) in areas with limited resources. This blog is the work of a man who collects these cassettes, changes them into mp3 files, and makes them available on the internet. Disseminate the worthy obscure! that's my new motto.

Before the internet, photographs were available only in bulky and wasteful paper format. I have several thousand of these. Because these were created using a primitive machine which did not allow you to preview your image before you printed it, the vast majority are complete garbage. I attempted to discard some, opened up an envelope of washed-out blurry images of palm trees, and realized I was looking at my first trip with my father, to Rio De Janeiro. I started to go through them--not a single image was worth keeping, but they reminded me of the trip--then I started to separate out the doubles (back in the day you would print two copies of everything in case something was worth sharing--can you imagine?!). It was then that I accepted that I was not up to the task, not yet.

Comments

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

A lot of my old photos are all stuck together. I suspect the hot weather is to blame. I didn't have the heart to throw them out either, for nostalgia's sake.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

This is my new favorite website! Thank you.

My dad was a photographer so I have probably thousands of his photos that I haven't gone through yet. Each time I start looking at them, the idea that I'm sort of looking into the past through his eyes overwhelms me because I still miss him so. I know that one of these days I'll be able to do it so I'll keep trying from time to time.

And aemiis_zoo, it's likely that stuck-together photos (real photos on real photo paper) can be unstuck by soaking them in room temperature water for a while and gently peeling them apart. Try it on some you don't care about and see if it works. The trick is to get them wet enough to let the emulsions soften enough to separate, pull slowly, and try to spread the stress evenly as they peel apart. An old-skool photographer could probably help you (maybe a middle or high school photo teacher or older newspaper photog.)

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! =)

[rudbekia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link - I'll be disseminating it further at work!

I hear you on paper photos. The cost *and* the disappointment. One of the best things about digital photography in my opinion is that it can open up photography to the very young, in that we (the people who control the printing of such) can just delete the bad photos such as camera strap in the picture, thumb obscuring the lens, chopped off heads or nothing but feet, that sort of thing. It also allows everyone to be braver and more experimental in their photo taking, since we don't have to worry about wasting film. I personally LOVE this. I'd love it more if I had a better camera ;-)

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

I think I will go through my photos from Kenya and scan them before they disintegrate. Only one was good from an artistic point of view but it was a wonderful time for wild life, 1974.

Kenya was the most beautiful place on the planet.

[stephanietberry.livejournal.com]

Yay! African music! Thank you SO much!

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

That site is great! thanks!

[jess-d-ripper.livejournal.com]

That site is awesome, thanks for posting it. I'm listening to the Ramata Diakite tape and I love it.

[urimancy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that link is fantastic, and I stole it for my Tumblr because I have no idea what else to do with that account.