The End of Film Photography, an analog exploration

the end of film @thendofilm Ken Hada
the end of film @thendofilm Ken Hada

The end of film reminds me that there are ideas hidden in everything. To start, I recently created an Instagram account called the end of film or in the Instagram language @thendofilm. This all came about from a summer chore. And that chore was the archiving of old 35mm film negatives. Something I did over the summer in 2019. So how could a chore spark an idea?

During this chore, I found these half-pictures in just about every roll of film. In fact, the truncated photo occurs near the start of the film. And most times it would cut the image in half. And at first, these defective frames seemed useless. I thought these little imperfect images were sad. Because there was this possibly perfect picture cut in half. But sometimes the meaning of things change.

Soon I was collecting these unusual snippets of film. Because I began to find them interesting. I thought they showed potential instead of failure. The blown-out part of the film represented what could have been. At certain times the bright part of the film sort of looked like a gateway.

The end of film or this place where light washes away reality can be a fun concept to explore.

I look at these images and wonder what happened before everything went white. The gateway can represent a beginning or an end.

Is the blown-out area a jumping-off point for time travel?

Is the blown-out area space where time does not exist? And when the white fades into a legible picture is that the threshold where time begins? Or did I spend too much time on Inner Space when I was young?

In the end, this place where the machine starts or stops becomes an interesting place to explore. Check out my end of film pictures on my Instagram account @thendofilm

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