The Accidental Archivist

What made you pick up a camera?
I think I just found where my grandmother’s photography began.

In 1974, she took a media course and bought an Olympus OM-1.
Soon after, she started taking macro photographs of flowers from her garden.

These might be some of her very first images.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

The Accidental Archivist

I’ve been slowly scanning through the 20,000 family negatives, and this week I came across a small set of colour images from my great-grandfather’s trip to Gran Canaria in the early 1970s.

What struck me most wasn’t just the location, but how few photographs he took, just seven from the entire trip. Looking through them feels very different to how we experience travel today, where we take hundreds of photos but rarely revisit them.

I’m still piecing together the story behind this trip, but it’s moments like these that make the whole archive feel alive.

📷 More to come as I continue exploring.

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

The Accidental Archivist

I found over 50 Hi8 video tapes. 📼

I didn’t realise how many of the negatives from the 1980s through the early 2000s had Hi8 video accompanying them.
Seeing both the photograph and the footage of the same moment feels surreal.

What I love most is catching the in-between, a glimpse of what happened just before, or just after, each frame.

This episode focuses on a roll of Fuji G-100 35mm film from a trip my grandparents took to Minnesota while researching our family history.
Another discovery followed: they filmed almost the entire journey on Hi8.

These frames come from a road trip between Alexandria, Minnesota and Rake, Iowa.

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

The Accidental Archivist

I’ve just published my first longer YouTube video.

Most of what I’ve shared so far has been Shorts, but this 5-minute video is a more complete version of the story — the discovery, the context, and the process of scanning the first 100-year-old negatives.

This is very much an experiment.
If there’s interest in longer-form videos like this, I’ll keep making them. :)

Would love to know what you think! 🎞️

2 months ago | [YT] | 5

The Accidental Archivist

For the past few months, I’ve been scanning generations of my family's negatives dating back to the 1920s. What started as a personal archive project has turned into an unexpected journey.

I’ve been genuinely overwhelmed by the response since I began documenting the process here; what I’ve learned along the way, the stories uncovered, and, just as importantly, the many mistakes I’ve made while figuring things out.

The team at Silvergrain Classics took an interest in the project and has been incredibly supportive, especially as I’ve worked through a wide range of film formats, including several that have long since been discontinued.

They’ve now written an article about The Accidental Archivist and the discoveries so far, which you can read here.
silvergrainclassics.com/en/2026/01/the_accidental_…

Very grateful for the encouragement, curiosity, and generosity that continue to come from the analogue photography community.

2 months ago | [YT] | 10

The Accidental Archivist

I scan all my negatives at home, and this video shows the process I currently use for medium-format film from the 1930s.

It’s taken a lot of trial and error, and this definitely isn’t the way, just what works for me right now.

If you scan your own negatives, I’d love to hear how you approach it.

4 months ago | [YT] | 0

The Accidental Archivist

I’ve shared a new short from the archive.

These photos were taken in New York in 1968 by my great-grandfather and grandmother. Decades later, while scanning the negatives, one skyline view raised more questions than answers.

Sometimes the photograph tells you where.
The rest, you have to imagine.

4 months ago | [YT] | 2

The Accidental Archivist

91 years ago, someone likely made a mistake in a darkroom… and it left its mark on my grandmother’s childhood memories.

I found these 1934 negatives in my attic and noticed a strange “lizard-skin” texture. This is commonly called reticulation: a physical stressing of the film emulsion, often caused by temperature shock during development nearly a century ago. I've been scanning negatives for weeks now, and this is the first time I've seen this.

Some photographers may recognise this as micro-reticulation or age-related emulsion stress; either way, it’s a physical trace of the film’s journey.

It’s a reminder that sometimes the 'flaws' tell a better story than the perfect shots.
Which makes me wonder: in an age of digital perfection, do we lose the beauty of the “shattered” moments?

🎞️ Like & subscribe to follow the journey as I uncover more rolls, scan century-old negatives, and explore the cameras that captured them.

#filmphotography #foundfilm #analog #photography #filmisnotdead

4 months ago | [YT] | 1

The Accidental Archivist

While scanning the 700+ rolls of film I found in my parents’ attic, I came across a roll of 120 film from France, 1949… a trip my grandfather never mentioned.

The first photo was so underexposed I almost skipped it. But after restoring it in ‪@Lightroom‬, a person began to appear… then my mom recognised my great-granduncle, Alf, waving from the harbour.

That moment, frozen in time for 75 years, opened the door to a story we never knew existed.


From war-damaged Calais to the streets of Paris — Arc de Triomphe, Place du Tertre, Sacré-Cœur — these photos brought 1949 back to life in the most unexpected way.

The new Mystery Roll episode is out now.
This one is special.

🎞️ Scanned in 16-bit Greyscale RAW
🧾 Film type: Medium Format
📍 Location: France
📆 Year: 1949

#foundfilm #120film #filmrestoration #analogphotography #paris #familyhistory #streetphotography #ww2 #history #scanningfilm ‪@Kodak‬ ‪@epsonamerica‬

5 months ago | [YT] | 3

The Accidental Archivist

In this week’s Mystery Roll episode, I’m scanning a roll of ‪@Kodak‬ Plus-X Pan, captured by my grandfather during a road trip in 1954, taken in his very first car, the Pobeda M20. Developed by my grandfather in his basement darkroom.

These photographs offer a rare look at the Pobeda itself: its distinctive curves, its rugged Soviet-era design, and the small everyday moments framed from inside and around the car. These images haven’t been seen in over seventy years.

Plus-X was introduced in 1938 and discontinued in 2011, and every time I scan one of these old rolls, I’m reminded of just how beautiful this film stock was.

Join me as we bring this forgotten 1954 Pobeda road trip back to life. One roll at a time.

🎞️ Scanned in 48-bit RAW
🧾 Film type: Kodak Plus-X Panchromatic
📍 Location: Norway
📆 Year: 1954

I’m using the ‪@epson‬ V850 film scanner, together with ‪@LSI-SilverFast‬ software and the ‪@JJCPhotography‬ 35mm film cutter to bring this roll back to life.

🎞️ Like & subscribe to follow the journey as I uncover more rolls, scan century-old negatives, and explore the cameras that captured them.

📸 New episodes every week!

#35mm #filmisnotdead #filmphotography #analog #norway #pobeda #classiccars #vintagephotography #photography @epsonamerica

5 months ago | [YT] | 4