April 2, 2005

Harrisonburg, VA

120mm

Magnolia Electric Co

In June of 2024 I found this exposed but unprocessed roll of 120mm film taped loosely inside a little cardboard film box deep in an old camera bag. No details on the box, nothing to indicate what treasures the roll contained or how ancient they may be. I had a vague recollection of taping up a loose roll to prevent it from being overexposed after some accident with the camera. The Holga was prone to such nightmare film accidents due to its very cheap and stupid design. The back of the camera was fastened to its body with two pieces of metal that slid over tabs on each side. But those pieces of metal also attached the neck strap to the camera. You could inadvertently pull off the only parts of the camera that held it together, just by holding it too firmly. At one point, I developed a system of sticky velcro pieces to fasten the back to the camera's body. The camera must've come apart at some point during the MACRoCk trip. I would have taped it up in the box to protect it from the light and planned to deal with later... 20 years later. I was floored when I got the scans back from and found that the roll was from this show. And for all of the Holga's flaws the results were absolutely magical. The light leaks are really something. It was such a joy to see Jason Molina's face on the film after all these years.

Venue: MACRoCK Festival

Our Strength Lies in Time Archive

SHOTS

These are the original scans. The negatives have since been rescanned at a much higher resolution for the

You Had to / Be There 3D Anaglyph Print Series

Light Leaks

The Holga’s puny flash doesn’t have much range, I’m very close to the stage and Mr. Molina in this set.

I’d have to be kneeling or sitting on the floor to be looking through the viewfinder in the single decent frame (above). It’s more likely that I just held the camera out at waist level and angled it up. I wouldn’t have been able to see the frame numbers on the back of the camera. I would need to mentally count the individual clicks of the winder-wheel and know approximately how many clicks each frame took up in order to find the next frame.

And those are some of the reasons this is not a popular concert photography camera. But sometimes you can fumble around and fuck up just enough for things to turn out beautiful.

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Show Date: April 2, 2005

Location: Harrisonburg, VA

Venue: MACRoCK Festival