Used

But what confounded him the most was the word exposé written on it. What could it mean? He continued, “I thought that probably meant that the roll has been exposed and used.” But the camera seemed barely used. 

Between Decades

It required van Oers some research work to find out the date of origin. “I found out the camera was built around 1929 and the film was produced between the 1940s and the 1970s.” Well, he wanted to develop film out of the roll which seemed very difficult now. 

Help From Friend

Even though it was a very difficult task, he did not give up. He asked his pal Johan Holleman to assist him in this venture. His friend Johan is well versed in the art of photo developing. However, developing photo out of this roll was going to be tricky for him too. However, his friend was more than ready to take up this challenge.     

One Afternoon

It remained fixed in van Oers’ mind. He had an aim and he had to achieve it no matter what come may. On a Tuesday afternoon, he visited Holleman’s place. Holleman had finally succeeded in cracking the pictures. A big smile came on the face of Oers when he noticed the outline of the picture that was faint for now as the process of development was still on.

Requires Efforts

As mentioned earlier, developing film is not an easy task especially, if it is about an old film. van Oers put it, the work “requires knowledge, timing, patience, and accuracy.” Even though the process was on, waiting for the whole picture to the surface was really painstaking. They were growing impatient to see the pictures.

Hustle

Van Oers aptly described the process, “That was difficult, I am extremely impatient. In the end, I even convinced [Holleman] to dry the roll with a hairdryer. That is actually very dangerous, but I had to have those things under the scanner. Fortunately, it had no impact on quality.”