09/06/2026
Twenty-year-old film doesn't come with promises.
Most of these images were shot on expired Kodak E100 slide film dating from 2004, cross processed in c41 chemistry. Some rolls passed through point-and-shoots, others through cameras like my Nikon F100, Canon AE-1, and Minolta 7000i. Every frame was a bit of a gamble. After sitting for decades, there was no guarantee the film would produce anything at all, let alone images worth sharing.
What came back was something I never could have planned. Strange colour shifts, deep saturated tones, unexpected casts, and little imperfections created by time itself. The film had changed over the years, and those changes became part of the photographs. Instead of fighting them, I found myself embracing them.
This process has reminded me that not everything creative comes with certainty. Sometimes you have to trust the experiment, put in the work, and accept that the outcome might be completely different from what you imagined. You load the film, press the shutter, mix the chemistry, and hope. The rest is out of your hands.
Over the past year I've gone from being slightly intimidated by developing colour film to regularly processing both 35mm and 120 at home. Every roll has taught me something. Every mistake has led to another lesson.
These photographs are a reminder that sometimes the best things come from taking a chance on something old, uncertain, and imperfect. You never really know what is waiting inside until you open the tank and see the negatives hanging there in the light. 📷✨
