Unknown Photographer - The 1LB Collection
Tough Act
After posting my Alaskan Collection as part of the "Unknown Photographer" project, I looked forward to the next round of surprises and adventures with a new lot of photographs.
To be honest, I had a different introduction written here about how disappointed I felt about this new collection vs the previous one.
But as I wrote this blog post and thought about it later, I did enjoy the adventure I went on. Sure, many photographs consisted of Disney trips, weddings, and cruises. As I moved through this collection, I realized it was about the people in the pictures instead of the locations, which was the story to be told.
As a gentle reminder, I am NOT the original photographer of these pictures; instead, they are part of many film negatives I purchased from eBay in 2025.
Getting To It
This collection took me a while to get through. A part of that is because I kept comparing it to my first collection and looking for cool and fun locations.
Another reason is that I ran out of the negative sleeves I use. The sleeves to store the negatives are only available from the manufacturer, so they take a bit to show up. Along with that, I needed more binders to store the negatives.
The condition of these negatives was a bit rough. Some of the negatives were bent, so I needed to find a way to flatten them. I ended up using a book with some weights stacked on the top. After a few weeks in this condition, it didn't help flatten them out.
Lastly, the scanning setup needed some more fine-tuning. I noticed that I was getting some glare on the negatives from the light below. Maybe it reflected off the lens, but I am not entirely sure. I went online to B&H to get more gear that cuts down all external light sources and another film strip roller.
For the other learning, I moved to using manual focus vs automatic. Moving to manual focusing had two effects, the images were consistently in focus, and the scanning process went much faster.
The 1lb Collection
So why is the name, you ask? The name I used is how the collection was sold on eBay. The eBay description listed this lot as one pound of negatives containing images from all walks of life. The lack of a better name has left me with this one.
As I alluded to earlier, this collection has seen some mileage regarding storage. The entire collection consisted of negatives, with most as color negatives. Once completely scanned, I had about 1300 images to review and process.
Getting through this collection was a bit of a slog since I needed a direction for this collection. The Alaskan Collection was easy to find the story early on. But for this collection, I needed to know what the story was that these photographs were telling me. Then it hit me; the people, the family, and the kids made up the overall story.
The people in different situations, reactions, and happiness tell a story for each photograph. I have many pictures of kids at a birthday in high school on what appears to be the last day of school along with family cruises and weddings. They all say the same thing, people in different situations and having a good time.
The Families
Now that I have gone through the pictures, I get the impression that I have about five sets of families.
A set of wedding photographs of the day itself along with pictures from the pre/post events. I enjoyed that some outfits screamed like they were from the early '90s.
One set of photographs for another wedding for another family, but nothing to write home about.
I think I have photographs from a hobbyist photographer or a professional. These photographs consist of many early 1970s black-and-white modeling photographs, along with a lot of surfing photos. Also, I think these were the rejected photos based on the quality of the images.
Another family I labeled as the "Brandi" family consists of about 80% of the total collection. The family appears to have traveled to Disney, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas via a Disney cruise. It, of course, has numerous birthday photos and general event photographs.
The last set of photos is from a hunter and one of the hunting trips taken.
Besides the hunting photographs, most families appear to be based in Florida. The hunter seems to be located in the Virginia area.
The date range of the photos, from what I can tell, ranges from the 1970s till about the early 2000s.
The Images
I limited my selection a bit out of respect to those in the photographs.
I have a picture or two of some teenage drug use (not that I never did any of that in my adolescent years). I have no idea where they are in life, but these showing up online might not be the coolest thing to do.
Pictures of a funeral. The funeral pictures are compelling, but I feel they are too intimate. If I can ever contact the family, I will see if I can release them.
There are many kid's pics that I decided to keep most private out of respect.
The Payphones
Nothing screams the mid-90s more than someone using a payphone. I remember using these back in the day to call my parents because I was stuck trying to get home while driving in a blizzard.
The Lady and a Window
I just love this picture, and it seems to say a lot. With the dog in the photograph, it feels like she is trying to decide to go outside. The potted plants just add a wonderful vibe to the picture.
The Wedding Car
With a couple of gentlemen ready for a wedding and the kids mugging to be in the shot, you feel like you are part of the moment. It conveys the happiness and joy of the wedding day.
Eating of the Head
This is one of those photographs that I would love to hear about. They appear to be friends and are hamming it up to get this picture. I have several other pictures leading up to this moment, but this is my favorite. The guy standing off to the side just adds one more layer.
Fire Breathing
Yes, this picture is wildly out of focus, but they call it art now. I am probably leaping, but I think this was taken in Peru based on some surrounding photograph location. It is another one of those photographs for which I could use some backstory.
Wrapping Up
Again, thank you for taking another journey with me. Although I felt lost when I started processing the collection, I am happy with my direction. It is about the families and the adventures they went on together. Although maybe I wasn't a fan of many of the pictures, I found some great emotion in some of the photographs.
Please enjoy the full gallery here.
Till next time,
The GenX Photo Guy.