three years ago I started the rescued
film project and what we do is look all
over the world four rolls of film that
have been shot but never processed I
then developed this film to try and
rescue any images that they might still
contain now this makes me the very first
person who has ever seen any of these
pictures and I spend countless hours and
thousands of dollars
acquiring processing and scanning film
and today we have rescued over 25,000
pictures the images in the archive range
from the 1940s all the way up until the
late 2000s and every picture that we're
going to be looking at together today is
actually from the rescued film project
archive and many of them until today
have never been seen by anybody except
myself so when I process this film
scanning in the images seeing them for
the very first time the same questions
always go through my head over and over
and over no matter what the picture is
of why was this never processed what
happened to the photographer and where
are they now unfortunately for most of
these pictures those questions will
probably go unanswered but many of you
might be looking at some of these photos
and thinking so what these are just some
random pictures of random people I don't
know I don't care about but take a
second and change your perspective and
look at this picture right now as if
you're looking at it in 50 years I don't
do this because I'm trying to find some
history altering images I do this
because I know that whether we realize
it or not every picture we take
documents our collective history as
human beings you see we take photos for
ourselves of moments that are important
to us but in doing so we also create a
snapshot of what it is like to be alive
right now what clothes are in style
what excites us birthdays apparently
where we go and what we find important
but as you're looking at these photos
right now realize you were never meant
to see them I was never meant to see
them because all of these photos were
shot on film and you would never see
them unless you had a real personal
connection with a photographer if you
were in their homes looking through
their photo albums or seeing them hung
on walls but today we take photos
knowing and even hoping that people we
have no personal connection with will
see them like them share them strangers
back when these photos were taken the
thought of the complete stranger seeing
them would be completely odd but today
it seems just commonplace when I started
the rescued film project my initial goal
was to reconnect these images with the
photographer's you know these days
because this is where I am these days
because of this we take photos at an
enormous rate because of this the
internet and social media has changed
why we take pictures we can curate
exactly how we want our lives to appear
to others we take 15 photos and post one
the perfect one and discard the rest
this photo by today's standards is not
perfect almost no one is looking at the
camera even paying attention today this
would probably be one of those 15 photos
that got discarded but this photo is
honest it is genuine it is a true and
accurate representation of this exact
moment in these people's lives and back
when this was shot on film this would
not have been discarded and that is why
I do what I do
so why don't we throw away photographs
physical photographs negative slides
why do we have those same two rolls of
film that we shot forever ago that we
just pass on from one junk drawer to the
next and the next over the course of
years why don't we throw them away why
are we all looking at this image right
now this person trying to tell his story
the stranger why do we care why do you
care why do I care because we all
inherently know that photos are history
photos are one of our only defenses
against time these photos might be the
only evidence that these people ever
existed and in a time when we discard
images without a second thought to me
it's an absolute tragedy but the only
people who truly know how important
these images are might never see them
and so when I started the rescued film
project my initial goal was to reconnect
these images with the people they belong
to the photographers unfortunately three
and a half years and 25,000 images later
that's only happened once but what I
have noticed is that because again these
photos document our collective history
as human beings we can all relate in
even small ways to so many of the photos
so many of these experiences that these
people are having and so we kind of step
in as surrogates and adopt them and give
these photos meaning again and enjoy
them for those who aren't able to
my generation is one of the last that
will span the gap between film and
digital and film is still around but
it's primarily being used only by
professional or niche photographers we
almost never use it anymore
to capture the everyday moments in our
lives birthdays Christmas Halloween
vacations of course
cats lots and lots of cats
dogs too these are still the same types
of moments that we're taking pictures up
today but now we are just taking a lot
more of them and while with digital the
quality of our photos has improved
because we are taking so many the
content of each photo somehow seems less
significant so if you could only take
six pictures how would that change what
you take a picture of in losing the
tangible connection of film we really
have started to begin to lose the
tangible connection to our past our
lives now live in digital photo
libraries on phones and computers we are
constantly looking back never looking
forward it's all about snap post move on
without those physical objects those
photos those negatives the slides those
albums we almost never look at the
images we create anymore we find
ourselves creating moments that will
make for a great photo instead of
actually just having a moment and then
using a photo to document it and not
being so caught up in trying to capture
the moment but when you think about it
it does make sense right remember your
photos might be the only evidence that
you ever existed and so of course we
want the photos we leave behind to
portray a life well-lived but is
portraying a life and curating some
glamorous collection of images more
important than actually living your life
and creating a genuine collection of
images that truly inaccurately
represents what your life was like and
so next time you take out your phone to
snap a photo just have a moment of pause
and consider what you're shooting
realize that there really are no small
moments there are no insignificant
moments and realize that your photos
aren't yours your photos will be used
and are being used to tell a greater
story of who we are and so my hope is
that we begin to
to apply a little bit of this film
approach or film film mentality to our
digital photography and there's two very
easy ways to start doing this number one
just limit yourself taking six photos a
day max and the number two if any one of
those photos isn't perfect don't discard
it post it share it save it by doing
this we will begin to start finding the
meaning behind our photos again and we
will begin to create a personal and
collective history that is truly genuine
now before I get off the stage to me
this seems like a very appropriate time
to actually take a photo so selfie mode
here all right everybody say cheese
[Music]
thank you
[Applause]