Southern California incinerator source for black-and-white negatives?

[Chester McCheeserton]

I don't have fireplace like Brett Weston, has anyone on here taken a stash of negatives to a commercial incinerator or used their own?

[Eric Woodbury]

As I understand it, BW didn't burn many and not the good stuff. It made for a good show.

Negs will shred fine.

[LabRat]

For very large masses, there were firms who would incinerate X-ray films to recover the silver... There was a big one on San Fernando Road in the Valley, but I would have to look it up... They would probably want a truckload, and would pay in cash or in silver ingots... Do you have alot???

Steve K

[ic-racer]

I'd just put them in the regular trash. Maybe some garbage hound will find them and go on an epic search for you. Maybe even make a video about the quest... (finding vivian mayer) I think these days this is the best way to get your work known.

In fact, I'm waiting for some conceptual artist to create an artificial persona of himself and claim to have found his own early work in the garbage...

[John Olsen]

I'd just put them in the regular trash. Maybe some garbage hound will find them and go on an epic search for you. Maybe even make a video about the quest... (finding vivian mayer) I think these days this is the best way to get your work known.

In fact, I'm waiting for some conceptual artist to create an artificial persona of himself and claim to have found his own early work in the garbage...

It would be even more effective if he faked his own demise in some tragic darkroom event...

[domaz]

I tried burning some of my grandparents old negatives that were still on nitrate film stock. That was quite the pyrotechnic show. If you threw a good stash of those in your fireplace pretty sure you wouldn't have a house left.

[Chester McCheeserton]

For very large masses, there were firms who would incinerate X-ray films to recover the silver... There was a big one on San Fernando Road in the Valley, but I would have to look it up... They would probably want a truckload, and would pay in cash or in silver ingots... Do you have alot???

Steve K

not a truckload, but maybe a big wheelbarrow load...if you think of the San Fernando place name I'd be curious.

[Chester McCheeserton]

yea there's some French guy who has a' conceptual' project going through tons of discarded negatives that he buys from recycling centers in China, i think it's called Beijing silvermine or something like that

[Jim Jones]

I watched over 2000 rolls of my 35mm negatives get incinerated after perhaps a cigarette butt (not mine!) triggered a brush fire which spread to the darkroom and a neighbor's barn. Also gone was the shed that housed the darkroom, almost as big as the two bedroom house I live in now, shop tools up to a metal turning lathe, antiques, radios, and junk.

[Tin Can]

Why the need to destroy them

I can understand recycling easily

Why not let future generations find them where ever they are

Time Capsule can be a 20 gallon barrel like this and may be incinerated

Eagle 1650 Yellow Blow-Molded HDPE Lab Pack with Screw Top Lid, 20 Gallon Capacity, 20.75" Height, 20.5" Diameter (https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-1650-Blow-Molded-Capacity-Diameter/dp/B001J5OKB0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9N4PUEOQOZ6W&dchild=1&keywords=20%2Bgallon%2Bdrum&qid=1599395388&s=industrial&sprefix=20%2Bgallon%2B%2Cindustrial%2C167&sr=1-1&th=1&psc=1)

[Merg Ross]

As I understand it, BW didn't burn many and not the good stuff. It made for a good show.

Negs will shred fine.

Leading up to his 80th birthday, most all of Brett's negatives were soaked in large cans of water before being transported to the county dump in Salinas.

On the morning of his birthday in 1991 at his Carmel Valley home , surrounded by an international press, Brett tossed a few 8x10 negatives into the flames of his fireplace.

He consented to having several dozen negatives saved for the Brett Weston archive at the CCP in Tucson.

[Dugan]

Leading up to his 80th birthday, most all of Brett's negatives were soaked in large cans of water before being transported to the county dump in Salinas.

On the morning of his birthday in 1991 at his Carmel Valley home , surrounded by an international press, Brett tossed a few 8x10 negatives into the flames of his fireplace.

He consented to having several dozen negatives saved for the Brett Weston archive at the CCP in Tucson.

Great info, Merg....thank you for posting it.

[Chester McCheeserton]

Why the need to destroy them

I can understand recycling easily

Why not let future generations find them where ever they are

Time Capsule can be a 20 gallon barrel like this and may be incinerated

Eagle 1650 Yellow Blow-Molded HDPE Lab Pack with Screw Top Lid, 20 Gallon Capacity, 20.75" Height, 20.5" Diameter (https://www.amazon.com/Eagle-1650-Blow-Molded-Capacity-Diameter/dp/B001J5OKB0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9N4PUEOQOZ6W&dchild=1&keywords=20%2Bgallon%2Bdrum&qid=1599395388&s=industrial&sprefix=20%2Bgallon%2B%2Cindustrial%2C167&sr=1-1&th=1&psc=1)

Thanks for the link...will prob just look into a shredder....something about being the maker and wanting control over what stays in the world...my first art teacher was a ceramicist, army veteran, was friends with Ernst Haas, he would row out into the middle of a lake where he lived and smash his unsuccessful pots with a hammer and drop them overboard. Guess I absorbed a little of that...

[Havoc]

I do not understand that destructive urge. While it may seem like failures now, it might be the only memories of something that persist through time. If we would only have "artistic valuable" photos, then we would not have a memory of what ordinary life 50 years ago looked like. What might look like landfill now might be the only surviving memories of something later on.

The only memories I have of my grand parents are not highly valued photos taken by recognised artists but snapshots of the family album. The value of a simple streetshot that has no meaning now may later be the only thing we have to go on how that street looked that day.

I don't delete anything. Except maybe photos of the back of lenscaps.

[Kiwi7475]

Just throw them to any of the existing fires

/s

[Pieter]

I don't have fireplace like Brett Weston, has anyone on here taken a stash of negatives to a commercial incinerator or used their own?

Shred them. If there are enough, take them to a commercial shredder. Brett Weston did not burn all or even a majority of his negatives. Some he soaked in water, let them stick together and put them in the trash. Others he damaged by punching holes in the corners and writing on them with a Sharpie.

[Tin Can]

Fully agree and why I posted these yesterday, 40 year old Polaroids (https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?43423-safe-haven-for-tiny-formats&p=1567755&viewfull=1#post1567755), few memories left of Anne, the location now burned. A happy moment, defiantly not art

I got them back 5 years ago, never thought I would see them again

and I love finding old negative plates of anything

soon we too pass


I do not understand that destructive urge. While it may seem like failures now, it might be the only memories of something that persist through time. If we would only have "artistic valuable" photos, then we would not have a memory of what ordinary life 50 years ago looked like. What might look like landfill now might be the only surviving memories of something later on.

The only memories I have of my grand parents are not highly valued photos taken by recognised artists but snapshots of the family album. The value of a simple streetshot that has no meaning now may later be the only thing we have to go on how that street looked that day.

I don't delete anything. Except maybe photos of the back of lenscaps.