The FOUND Project

I got my first camera at age 9. It was a Kodak 126 camera, and foreshadowingly, I mostly took pictures of nice cars with it. That film was never developed, and the camera never got another roll of film.

This project "Found," was born from my innate desire to collect and my years of selling people cameras. I started finding expensive cameras discarded, sometimes lucky enough to end up in op-shops, but often at dumpshops or, worse, crushed in landfills. These were film cameras, unwanted in the digital age. So, I bought a lot of them—sometimes for a dollar or two, sometimes for nothing. One in every 10 or 20 cameras would still have film in it, usually unfinished.

This got me thinking about the memories, moments, and events captured on these films, lost and discarded, never to be realized. It was kind of sad, right? Luckily, due to my 'collecting' nature, I kept all of those films. Many of the cameras have been rehomed, but the film stayed with me.
About 10 years ago, I had the idea for a book based on these films, but film processing was expensive, and I wasn't sure the images would be publication-worthy. I asked one lab if they would be interested in the project—they weren't. It wasn't a gamble I was willing to take, so the idea went back on the shelf.
With a renewed desire to see this through and encouragement from a good friend, I asked my current lab, Camera House in Lower Hutt (to whom I often sell cameras), if they would be involved. They jumped at it. We developed over 30 films, resulting in several hundred images. This book is a collection of the images I liked aesthetically or felt needed to see the light of day; some even felt important to put out into the world. If anyone recognizes whanau, friends, or even things they know or knew, I hope they reach out to me. I’d love to share these lost and FOUND images with those who originally took the time to capture them.
Click here for the latest on the FOUND project