Bob Dylan “Saved” By Ilford

Bob Dylan in a photograph taken by Mark Estabrook in 1978. Shot with Nikkormat ELW using Ilford HP5 and exposed at 800 ASA and developed 31 years later.

When fans of Bob Dylan see “Dylan” and “Saved”, they think of his 20th album released in 1980. But after you hear about the story of photographer Mark Estabrook you will be thinking about the stability of Ilford film and a great technical support.

Two years before Bob Dylan’s “Saved” was released Estabrook was attending  a Dylan show in Fort Worth, Texas. He carried a Nikkormat ELW loaded with Ilford HP-5 film.  The photograph was taken from that show, the amazing thing is the film was that he did not developed until recently.

“The film lay dormant and undeveloped at various room temperatures until I discovered them when moving house recently,” He said. “I asked ILFORD PHOTO’s technical team how to develop the film and when I came out of the darkroom I was amazed how well the images had been preserved. It was as if I shot the show yesterday, with superb grain detail.”

“I have used various digital storage, from floppy disks to flash drives, since 1982 and a hard drive would never have lasted that long, let alone an inkjet print. The fact these pictures survived in the condition that they did is testament to the quality and longevity of silver halide photography. As I tell my fellow photographers: try that with a hard drive.”

(updated Nov. 24, 2009) Ilford used some Estabrook’s at the PhotoPlus Expo last month in New York City. Digital Silver Imaging was the photo lab used to produce the exhibition quality prints with their mix of old school silver emulsion paper and new age digital enlargers.

I have used Ilford films, HP5 especially the 120 format, since 1979 when my Algebra teacher introduced to me it. Mr. Hixon used mathematics to explain why I should and after I saw the range of range from black to white I understood completely. I don’t recall ever waiting a period even close to 31 years to develop any film, but it is great to see that if I did it might be salvageable to have exhibition quality prints printed from it.

Ilford has produced film and photographic product since 1879, thirteen years before Eastman Kodak. Ilford Photo, as it is known today, has made a wide range of products ranging from color print material to cameras.  Camera collectors and history buffs should look up the Ilford Witness, one the best rangefinders of its era.

The black and white films and papers are what put Ilford on the map. The company shows great commitment to the black and white photography community to  still produce great films and papers in a market that has going digital. I know I will keep using their products as long they produce it and I can still trip a shutter.