The Undeveloped Film Market: The People Who Buy Strangers' Mystery Rolls at Estate Sales
In late 2014, a lot of 31 undeveloped film rolls that had turned up at an auction in Ohio made its way to a photographer in Boise, Idaho named Levi Bettwieser, who started processing them one at a time. What rose up in the developer was a young American soldier's private record of World War II, shot on rolls that had sat exposed but unprocessed for roughly 70 years. Someone loaded those cameras, pressed the shutter, and then, for reasons no one will ever know, never got the film developed. That
In late 2014, a lot of 31 undeveloped film rolls that had turned up at an auction in Ohio made its way to a photographer in Boise, Idaho named Levi Bettwieser, who started processing them one at a time. What rose up in the developer was a young American soldier's private record of World War II, shot on rolls that had sat exposed but unprocessed for roughly 70 years. Someone loaded those cameras, pressed the shutter, and then, for reasons no one will ever know, never got the film developed. That box of rolls is the whole appeal of a strange little corner of photography compressed into one…