“For me, the pandemic sort of transferred my own passion for being out and about making photographs myself to collecting vernacular photographs, writes Thomas Hawk, a selection of fabulous found photos – all Ektachrome slides – you can see here. “At first, it was sort of something to work on during lockdown, but then as I dove deeper I found myself being as consumed by these images as I am my own.
“I feel like collecting, scanning and sharing these images with the world sort of gives them a second life beyond what would be almost certain obscurity and loss from our shared culture.”
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-August-1975-1200x786.jpeg)
Ektachrome slide – Paris, August 1975
“I suspect by the time all is said and done, I’ll have been able to archive hundreds of thousands of these photographs and hopefully provide a deeper look into our shared past for those who wish to explore. I think scanning the images in high quality, high resolution allows the viewer to go deeper and study them even more than they might holding a smaller version of the image in their own hands – although I do appreciate the experience of holding and examining a snapshot or viewing an old slide through a slide loupe.”
![Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-Campo-San-Luca-Venice-Italy-date-stamped-on-slide-October-1968-1200x787.jpeg)
Italy, October 1968
![Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-Chicago-State-Street-looking-North-date-stamped-on-slide-January-1972-1200x815.jpeg)
Ektachrome Slide – Chicago, January 1972
Ektachrome has a distinctive look that became familiar to many readers of National Geographic, which used it extensively for color photographs for decades in settings where Kodachrome was too slow. In terms of reciprocity characteristics Ektachrome is stable at shutter speeds between ten seconds and 1/10,000 of a second.
![Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide August 1973](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-August-1973-1200x1696.jpeg)
Found Ektachrome Slide – date stamped on slide: August 1973
![Ektachrome](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-Las-Vegas-1969-1200x806.jpeg)
Ektachrome – 1960s Las Vegas
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-22handwritten-on-slide-“Cable-Car-San-Fran22-date-stamped-on-slide-August-1965-1200x1200.jpeg)
Cable Car, San Francisco – August 1965
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-January-1961-1200x814.jpeg)
January 1961
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-July-1966-1200x1201.jpeg)
July 1966
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-handwritten-on-slide-“Lunch-en-route-Sequoia-to-Yosemite22-date-stamped-on-slide-August-1965-1200x1200.jpeg)
Lunch en route, Sequoia to Yosemite – August 1965
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ektachrome-Slide-1200x791.jpeg)
Found Ektachrome Slide – Las Vegas, 1960s
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-October-1965-aa-1200x792.jpeg)
October 1965
![Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide April 1966](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-April-1966-1200x755.jpeg)
Found Ektachrome Slide – date stamped on slide: April 1966
![Found Ektachrome Slide date stamped on slide May 1974](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-May-1974-1200x1208.jpeg)
May 1974
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-Octobrer-1978-1200x807.jpeg)
Found Ektachrome Slide – October 1978
![Found Ektachrome Slide](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-October-1965-a-1200x798.jpeg)
San Francisco, October 1965
![Found Ektachrome Slide handwritten on slide, “Bill watching TV, January 10, 1958](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-handwritten-on-slide-“Bill-watching-TV-January-10-195822-1200x770.jpeg)
Bill watching TV, January 10, 1958
![Found Ektachrome Slide handwritten on slide, “grandpa and the gypsies, December 1959](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-handwritten-on-slide-“grandpa-and-the-gypsies-December-195922-1200x804.jpeg)
Grandpa and the gypsies’ – December 1959
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-December-1965-possibly-San-Francisco-1200x792.jpeg)
December 1965
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Ektachrome-Slide-date-stamped-on-slide-December-1971-1200x793.jpeg)
December 1971
![](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Found-Photo-1963-date-stamped-on-slide-July-1963-from-a-box-labeled-22Models-Amherst-196322-a-1200x1202.jpeg)
1963 – from a box labeled Models, Amherst
Via: Thomas Hawk, who is “trying to publish a library of 1,000,000 hand crafted, lovingly created, individually finished and processed photographs before I die. Mostly I’m focusing on America.”
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