DISCARDED THINGS

My parents had always been photographing, but in 1961 they started with slides. As material they mostly used Agfa CT 18. Thirty-six slides on a roll, but if you put in sparingly you could make 37.

When my mother died in 2022, she left us boxes full of slides, neatly classified in a kind of small binder.  I’ve lost count a bit, but there were more than 3000. We weren’t going to keep all that.

Many slides were made during holidays. As a memory, but also to show others where we had been. Many imposing buildings, rustic villages, exotic flowers and sunsets by the sea.

To be honest, the photos on which we ourselves were depicted – the four children with mom and dad – were the most interesting after all these years. But some slides had acquired a historical value: the port of Yerseke in the winter of 62/63 or the ferry from De Val (Zierikzee) to Katseveer.

I looked at all the slides twice, about 1200 slides I scanned. I cleaned them all up, removed damage and dust, did some colour correction if necessary, but I also kept the original scans. I have delivered the historical slides to the Zeeland Archives and the Utrecht Municipal Archives. I have kept a few boxes of very precious slides. And the rest thrown away. Yes, always with pain in my heart, but I had really done my best.