The Quest to Identify Who Captured Thousands of Iconic 1960s Photos
Photographer Bill Delzell is on a quest to identify the unnamed photographer who left behind hundreds of rolls of undeveloped film containing images of historic moments from the late 1960s San Francisco abandoned in a storage unit.
CBS Evening News reporter John Blackstone caught up with Delzell for an update on the story.
“Somehow the work ended up in a storage unit. That storage unit was abandoned. A picker bought it, sold it to a collector. What’s interesting about this is the film was completely unprocessed. So these rolls of film were discovered in a box or bag, and none of these photographs were ever seen by the photographer that made them,” Delzell says.
The collection changed hands several times over the years before one of Delzell’s friends purchased it. After being introduced to the work, Delzell immediately felt the need to discover who created such a significant portfolio and then lost it.
The quality and breadth of imagery included in the collection are stunning. There are 5,700 black and white film photographs and color slides that capture iconic moments from civil rights marches and demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, as well as 1960s outdoor concerts and famous faces of the counterculture.
“Some people speculate that’s the best portrait ever done of Timothy Leary, and it’s not posed, but it’s captured at a really exciting moment,” Delzell says. “To think that someone spent five years capturing these iconic moments in time, and then to have lost the work just hit me really hard. It was really unimaginable how that could have happened.”
Delzell still has 75 more rolls of 35mm film that have not been processed, and judging by the contents of those already developed, they could contain even more historic and vital imagery from the 1960s, a true time capsule.
To fund processing the final rolls of the 60-year-old film, Delzell started a Kickstarter titled “Who Shot Me — Stories Unprocessed” to help offset the costs of finishing the expected over 2,700 images.
“If they’re anything like the images that we have already processed, it’s going to be a spectacular collection,” Delzell says.
The completed Kickstarter amassed over $64,000 in funding. The campaign lists the known puzzle pieces, with some individuals identifying themselves in images as well as celebrities and iconic faces being seen in the crowds.
The project to discover the mystery photographer is now bigger than just Delzell’s quest, it has become collaborative between the Kickstarter and now a Subreddit full of people sharing their stories, identifying the images, and speculating on the identity of just who was behind the lens.
“There is historical significance of the work. The idea of a community coming together to search for the identity of this individual, as well as individuals in the photograph, is what appeals to me. We’re still at a time where a lot of the people in those images are alive, and they can share their stories,” Delzell explains.
“If you think about any moment in the history of humankind, there’s probably never been a time that has had such a transformational impact on culture as the 60s. To be able to dive into 8,000 images — all captured through the eye of one individual — is unique. Educators can add the images to their curriculum when they’re talking about subjects like the Civil Rights movement or the Summer of Love or the counterculture movement. It just really represents a great opportunity.”
The mystery of Who Shot Me remains, but hopefully, the development of the last 75 rolls of the film adds more clues than questions to this real-life photography “whodunit” tale.
Image credits: Photographs by a mysterious figure from the 1960s, Who Shot Me project.
