The Anonymous Project curates strange and mundane vintage slides

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/27/the-anonymous-project-curates.html

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This seems like a tamer version of โ€œThe Internet K Holeโ€.

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I LOVE these sorts of photos. There is a pureness about these. I think weโ€™ve lost this in the digital age.

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Have you met Gudak?

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That is a dear, dear favorite.

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In the late 70โ€™s, early 80โ€™s my dad went to auctions regularly, One night he bought an unopened box from a liquidated storage facility. One of the items in the box was a set of a few hundred slides and viewer. I was rapt as I worked my way through the slides. Watching this family go through their daily lives.

Then I got to several photos of an an 18 year old boy taking photos in his military suit with the family in front of their house. Every one was beaming with pride. It was clearly a happy day.

The next photos taken were of a military funeral. Full 21 gun salute. Coffin. Flag folding. Ladies in hats with veils. The family in tears.

I was in the 5th grade give or a take a year and it left a permanent impression on me. Like all boys at the time I liked actions movies. But after that, when i saw an action movie I would think of the slides and that familyโ€™s loss and guns and war stopped having the appeal and excitement it once did.

I have almost nothing left from my childhood in terms of stuff. One of the few things I have kept all of these years are those slides and slide viewer. They changed my world view and started a life long passion for photography. Itโ€™s crazy the power that some photons striking emulsion can have decades later.

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Wow, that is a remarkable story! You should consider doing a documentary about it.

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Hey look! I found 70s Aubrey Plaza.

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Alive and well in the tumblr age:

Often NSFW, for people not familiar with it.

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I have several boxes of random slides Iโ€™ve picked up at thrift stores and flea markets and curbside trash, but unlike finding an old photo album they are very tedious to look through, so these guys have some perseverance.

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For me, too. Itโ€™s all so familiar, so poignant, so stupid. Plus the occasional bit of horrible nudity thrown in for flavor!

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All without any context or comment.

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& @doogly @anon61221983 @NashRambler
I found this guy recently, too:

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That would be cool. Never done a project like that but I have been feeling an interesting in learning video editing recently. Having a real goal greatly helps drive the learning process. Thank you!

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You might find this interesting/inspirational:

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WOW! That was fantastic ride through a time and place. Great example of dynamically showing photos. Good momentum and pacing. Thank you, again.

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cf. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

Ahh, so much better than than the plague of selfies and POV feet shots on beaches!

Well, one thing is definitely different; the ones who are posing are not the ones holding the cameras.

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Just a different aesthetic.

But do you really think no one took pictures of themselves before cell phone cameras? Iโ€™m sure people did with polaroids or just plain old point and shoots.