Developing an Interest courtesy of a Kodak ad in January 1951
Toronto. The ad at left is from an old Popular Mechanics magazine, courtesy of my good friend George Dunbar. George writes, “A Testimonial from GD: Many became photographers because of the magic of the darkroom.”. The ad, of course, is Kodak’s encouragement to buy its darkroom kit to extend the pleasure of photography to developing prints and even films.
These kits all make contact prints only. Their retail price is far too low even for Kodak to accommodate an enlarger – so necessary with 35mm and 828 films to get a decent size print. To help the amateur, the kits came with ‘Velite’ paper, usable without need for any safelights or darkrooms.
Okay dear reader, what was your incentive to adopt photography as hobby or as a profession? In my case, it was the gift of a little plastic camera – a baby Brownie. It was given to me by my dad when I was eleven. The following year, was my first ever school trip. Our grade six class went off to see the sights. And I brought along my trusty Brownie and some Super XX film rolls which I believed was “high speed” (according to Kodak). Sadly, it was certainly not up to the task of indoor snaps with my little camera with a fixed focus f/16 lens and 1/25 second shutter.
I did have tons of curiosity though, and wrestled with photography and radio as serious interests over the next decades. Again I ask, what’s your story, dear reader?
