when he was three, my sister in law gave my nephew a disposable camera and took him on a walk. i wasn't sure what would come out. in fact i wasn't sure any pictures would appear at all. i was wrong! the pictures were great. simply being shot from his point of view (which is only a couple of feet lower than mine) gave me such a glimpse of his world. in the pictures, adults looked like enormous giants with tiny heads and huge feet, the sidewalk looked like a parking lot. houses and trees seemed bigger and farther away at the same time. i was amazed. they were just pictures of a neighborhood but it changed the way i thought about his tiny life.

the time lag between the pictures being taken and being developed added to the feeling of discovery.

this made me think: what could i learn from other people's ordinary camera shots? i got the idea to offer exposed, undeveloped rolls of film for sale on etsy.com. in the item listing i welcomed other people to post their exposed film, too.

my hope is that etsy members will trade their film diaries and have them developed. etsy has a great community of people, this project brings them a little closer and helps us all discover things about each other's lives that might have otherwise been overlooked. we can also re-discover the joy and surprise of real film. and you end up seeing a lot of yourself, even though you might never see your own pictures. 

if you sell on etsy, please list something like this in your shop. tag the item "photolabproject" so it will be easy to find you.

if you don't sell or buy on etsy (you should!) please contact me at kathy at thephotolabproject dot org and we'll find a way to include you. this is something you could always do with a friend or family member, too.