A woman who bought an old Olympus SLR film camera in a thrift store got more than she bargained for when she found a half-used roll of film, still in the chamber. Rather than dispose of the canister, she had it developed, which turned up ten photos that have remained dormant for decades.
The woman in question, Tilda, published the images on her TikTok variousstormsandsaints, with the description “Help me find the people in these photographs”. The story has since gone viral, earning 9,130 likes and 132 comments on TikTok, and having been shared widely by various news outlets.
The camera was purchased in the St Vincent’s thrift store in the London Borough of Hackney, England, and appears to depict a family outing to a duck pond, several Christmas photos and a few images of a rather adorable-looking West Highland terrier.
According to the comments section, various users have identified the outdoor shots as being in the town of Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, also in England.
Due to the scale of the response to the photos, Tilda has commented on the post to clarify: “If the family in the pictures sees this and wants it removed for privacy reasons I will do that immediately, please contact me if that’s the case! I didn’t expect it to go so viral”.
I have to say, the images look great quality considering the film’s been sitting in the camera for so long, possibly since the late 1990s/early 2000s. While USB sticks and hard drives retain some physicality for physical media, I can’t help but ponder how many digital photos are now left in cloud storage and will possibly never see the light of day again.
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