Expired Film Captures the Color of Dreams in Brittany, France
Analog experiments and accidental cross-processing with film expired since 1991
Author
Caroline Ruffault
Photographer
Caroline Ruffault
Camera
SL35 Rolleiflex
Film
Kodak Ektar 125, expired in 1991
Limited-edition internet from friends new and old. Want to contribute? Drop us a line via the About page.
The series is called, “The Colors of My Dream.”
It’s an ongoing project I started last year after buying some expired rolls of Kodak Ektar 125. I had just moved back to France after living in Austin, Texas for 4 years, and in my old boxes, I found my paterson darkroom tank. I had been researching how to process my color film at home for a while and bought a C-41 kit.
After my first attempt I was thrilled with the result, though later I learned that this film was supposed to be developed with a different chemical. I was cross-processing my film accidentally. I loved it and kept doing it.
When you come back to a place where you used to live after a very long time away, the landscapes, and especially the sea, seem so permanent. The wrinkles of time exist in the waves before they crash on the sand and disappear. But ten years apart made me a different person.
What if I could really see the world in a different manner, capturing the hidden beauty of my dreams? Lately I felt as if the boundaries of my body were not so clear, melting into the air on the first centimeters of my skin. It could be that film might magically reveal the world as it truly is, not as our eyes can see it.
In my animist world, everything is intertwined, people and places have colors, trees and stones speak at night, and I walk with a piece of you.
--
In the colors of my dream we will grow old and we will grow wise,
walking deserted landscapes where the air is thick and the wind carries music,
where the sky is big and where the spirits run free.
Published 01-10-2019
