Accidental Double Exposures on a “New” Roll of Already Exposed Film

May 27, 2013

Anna Gay

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Yesterday was really no different from any other day, except for the fact that I was developing a roll of 35mm film — that usually doesn’t happen. My husband Evan was sitting outside the door of our “darkroom” (read: spare bathroom) as I was hanging my film to dry, when I exclaimed, “These aren’t my photos!”

At first, I’m sure he thought that I had just taken some really rancid photos and didn’t want to claim ownership, but really, they weren’t my photos.

Last month, while I was in New York, a friend of mine on Long Island purchased two rolls of Kodak Tri X for me from a local camera store. Apparently, the owner of the store sold him a roll of already exposed film. How this happened is beyond me. But, if something wacky is going to happen, it usually happens to me.

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So, what you’re seeing here is a complete stranger’s shots double exposed with mine on top. I had no way of knowing this was going to happen, as the film canister looked completely normal, and even had the appropriate amount of film sticking out of the canister for me to load it into my camera. All signs pointed to the fact that this was a new roll of film.

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Is that a water tower and Coca Cola mural in rural Georgia double exposed on top of a photo of someone in New York holding what appears to be a stuffed mountain lion? Why, yes – yes it is!

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I really don’t know what else to say about this. Personally, I’ve never had this happen to me, and I’m a little bit flabbergasted by the whole situation. Ultimately, I would really love to find out who this film belonged to, but I know that’s a long shot.

I know how terrible it feels to lose a roll of film, so I think it would be really neat to let the people in these photos know that someone found their film (albeit, I shot over their shots, but that was an accident).

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