Keep checking those dumpsters

[tim atherton]

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/EntertainmentNews/e092749A.htm

or

http://tinyurl.com/7hylw

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Bill Hendrie rescued 30 photographs of "Okie" migrants from a garbage bin at the San Jose Chamber of Commerce in the late 1960s because his family also came from Oklahoma and he said he could relate to them.

During the next 40 years, aside from several attempts by his wife to return them to the trash, the photos were mostly forgotten. This spring, Hendrie's daughter, Marian Tankersley, rediscovered them when she was emptying out her parents' house after their deaths. She contacted experts who confirmed her suspicions: They are original prints made by the legendary Dorothea Lange.

Among them is Migrant Mother, the legendary photo that symbolizes the era.... more at above

[Joe Smith]

What a great find!

Back when I was a kid growing up in NJ, one of my hobbies was collecting bottles. My brother and I pretty much scoured over the local area searching for, and digging up, old bottle dumps.

On one of our more infamous missions, we discovered a small chest. It was filled with glass slides, similar to the old stereo photographs. The chest was rotted and smelld terrible, we were anxious to get some real treasures - bottles.

But the glass slides, with the boring photos etched on them, made an interesting "plink-clink" sound as they broke when we tossed each and every one of them over the hill onto the rocks below.

[Steve Feldman]

At work, in the mid 80's, I saw a guy dumping a (car) trunk full of blue plastic cases. Being a curious sort, I checked 'em out after he left. I retrieved 10 Kodak carousels in blue plastic shipping cases. The slides were a training program for repairing Kodak copiers. I threw out the old slides and have been using the carousels ever since.

Sometimes you win.

[Matthew Cordery]

one day while walking in downtown Anchorage, my dad spied a small plastic bag in the gutter. being the pack rat that he is, he picked it up and put it in his pocket. only later, when he got home and cleaned it off, did he discover that it contained a 1-oz gold nugget.

he is also good at finding deals on classic Mustang parts. he once happened upon a garage sale where the woman had a full set of pristine rally rims (worth several hundred dollars according to my father). apparently, they belonged to her ex-boyfriend, who was currently not the most popular person on the block. my father asked 'how much?', to which the proprietess replied, scornfully, 'oh, $50'.

i could go on, but, sadly, i did not inherit that gene and thinking about it depresses me. ;-)

[jnanian]

weren't atget's negatives rescued from the trash as well ?

[Mark Sawyer]

"weren't atget's negatives rescued from the trash as well ?"

No, Bernice Abbott got them from Atget while he was still around and started printing and publishing them. "Rescued from the trash" is a good story though, I've heard it about Atget before. One of photography's urban legends...

[Andrew O'Neill]

There are tons of my prints in the garbage...and that is exactly where they will stay!

[Robert Opheim]

I have saved a mamoth plate print by Carleton Watkins that a former client was throwing out. Also I found an Omega D2-V at a garage sale for $50. There are those rare finds - that keep you looking. As to the time spent looking..............

[Steve Daniels]

About ten years ago, a friend stopped by to show me what he found at a garage sale. For $25.00 an old man was selling his Ektagraphic slide projector and about 20 carousels with the slides still in them. He said he didn't take pictures anymore, and he didn't enjoy showing them, since everyone he knew had seen them too many times and were no longer interested.

As he was leaving with his new found projector, the man stopped him and said he might as well take the camera too, and handed him a bag with a Nikon F3 and 4 Nikkor lenses in perfect condition.

For weeks, we checked out garage sales...