Photographing the Acropolis with an Antique Roll of Film

While as a rule I am open to experimentation in photography, I have not dealt much with expired films, despite my admiration for the results many photographers are able to coax from them. At the core this speaks to a kind of conservativism within me, an anxiety about things outside my control. Given the large number of variables present even when changing from one modern film stock to another, I have shied away from introducing a further wild card in the form of emulsions whose expiration dates — and general reliability — are long past.

This reluctance changed during a recent family vacation to Greece, when a young Bulgarian photographer, spying the Rolleiflex around my neck, approached me to chat. Almost as an afterthought as we were saying goodbye, he handed me a roll of Orwo NP 22, an East German film (expiration date 1991) that until the fall of the Berlin Wall was common in Eastern Europe.

Although the young man wasn’t sure about the conditions in which this particular box had been stored, he had already shot several rolls from the same batch and felt sure I would get interesting results as long as I reduced the ISO by about 60% from box speed to account for a decrease in the film’s light sensitivity over three decades. Not having any similar rarities to offer, I reciprocated with a roll of Tri-X 400, which he was gracious enough to accept.

Although this chance meeting happened on Crete at the start of my trip, I resolved to wait till I arrived in Athens to use this film, saving it for the visit to the Acropolis that would mark the end of our holiday. This wasn’t my first time on that fabled promontory; on a previous visit, I shot Kodak Gold in 35mm format. Although those pictures turned out fine, they failed to convey the grandeur and — for me, as a New Yorker — the dizzying antiquity of the place. Seeking a more classic look, I determined to shoot black-and-white this time around, with an orange filter for drama, on my Rolleiflex 2.8F. Given the arrival of sunny weather, conditions seemed ideal for using this 34 year-old film.

Loading the Orwo NP 22 presented no problems, though the salmon-pink backing paper — an incongruous design in an otherwise drab package — surprised me. The only hitch came after the last exposure as I was cranking the film onto the take-up spool. For a minute, the Rollei seemed to seize; the crank moved laboriously and was accompanied by grinding and what seemed like the sound of paper shredding. When I opened the camera to retrieve the film, however, all looked as it should. This mystery, which has not recurred, is beyond my capacity to explain; thankfully it didn’t seem to have any impact on the final images.

Although my benefactor suggested using Kodak Xtol to develop the film, as I don’t keep that developer in my darkroom I opted for Kodak HC-110 instead, choosing the “E” dilution as recommended by several authors online and the Massive Film Development Chart. Scanning the film later, I was very pleased with its performance. While the negatives are far from pristine — there are plenty of irregularities, mainly splotches, the largest of which I touched up in post — they give the photos an old-timey character that seemed unusually well suited to my subject matter. Although I also shot some Portra on the Acropolis with the Rollei, as seen below, I don’t think the images are nearly as soulful as those made from this antique roll of film.

A special thank you to Ivelin Penchev, the Bulgarian photographer who gifted me this film. Ivelin is a leader in the film revival in his home city of Gobrovo; you can visit his website at radlabstudio.com.

Thank you for reading.

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