True lost films

I am currently in the midst of researching lost films for a new project (which is quite exciting, since I’m in league with someone else on it and that means my chances of letting it drift quietly away have been seriously reduced) and, quite by accident, I came across a site called Found Films.

I don’t know who runs the site, but they find and buy old cameras, then develop the films if they find any in them. The pictures are then published to the website.

For the most part - and speaking as someone who loves photography and the memories that pictures keep - this is a beautiful site, full of people that I’ll never know, who might be long-since-gone or just a lot older now, doing stuff that made them happy. It’s also quite sad too - sad that people whose ancestors these are - grandparents (perhaps even great-etc), long-lost uncles and aunties, cousins and the like - don’t have this record of them and I only hope that they find the site themselves and find their relatives.

I found these two pictures particularly heartbreaking - look at the love in the adults faces and the joyful innocence in those of the kids. Where are these children now - are they alive, how old are they, what did they do with their lives? And the adults, what’s their story?

photographs are © Found Films