From the charming British countryside of Salisbury comes an equally-charming story of a roll of lost film found lodged in a thrift shop camera.
Developed by Ian Scott of Salisbury Photo Center, he and the new owner of the antique camera were suddenly looking at crisp memories of a skiing trip to St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Yet because the camera was dropped off at Alabaré Wilton Emporium who-knows-how-long ago by who-knows who, there’s no clue as to the identities of the people in the photos.
Scott has taken the time to launch a sort of nation-wide awareness campaign to see if anyone recognizes a face in the photographs.
“No leads on the photos yet,” Scott told our Smithsonian Magazine on February 19th. “It has been on TV and the Sunday Express and [my] Instagram, which had 8,000 views in 24 hours, but sadly, no leads.”
A couple of clues exist in the photos and the film they were imprinted on. For starters, the camera was a Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta, made in the interwar period and designed to be carried around in one’s pocket since it folded up. However, the film inside was Verichrome Pan 127, sold in Britain for the first time in 1956.
Furthermore, the skiers were wearing numbered pennies with the name of a baby formula brand Cow & Gate, which sponsored a ski trophy in the 1950s.
Beyond that, it’s clear they’re in St. Moritz ski resort from one picture of a woman on ice skates in front of the town’s iconic Badrutt’s Palace Hotel.
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“There appears to be a great story behind these photographs, and it would be brilliant if someone could recognize a face amongst them,” Scott told the Salisbury & Avon Gazette. “At the very least, it has been a privilege to have played a small part in preserving these moments from the past.”
It’s amazing to see how lightly some of the subjects are dressed. Wool is a hell of a thing.
WATCH the story below from ITV News (Via Scott’s IG…)
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