柯達 Verichrome在一個盒子裡與到期日期1943年12月
Yes that's right -- just what's the subject says -- 120 Kodak Verichrome in a box with the expiration date of December 1943
I received it from a seller in a village in Northern Illinois and were hoping for the images from a village in Northern Illinois
(or Chicago, if the stars are gracious), but something different came out of wet darkness:
Now, this is no doubt Mainland China, most likely in early 40s.
The flag in the first frame is the flag of the First Republic of China (now flag of Taiwan)
The second frame looks so familiar to me personally because I use to live in a town (Kazan, Russia) were --
-- half of the population were ethnically tartar i.e. Asian
-- the railway station was also brick and somewhat similar design
-- it was under soviet rule so people were generally poor, always carrying stuff, always were some military and/or police uniforms in a crowd, just like here.
The second image was probably taken from train door or from the 2nd platform. Simple camera was used -- the image is not very sharp at edges.
This film had traveled half a globe in space and 65 years in time which is very unusual for a forgotten film, but the proof is here.
We don't know how exactly it had happened -- Americans were generally not welcomed at the time in China; the country was torn in pieces by war and civil unrest; so the photographer was not a tourist. Probably missionary -- there were some in China at the time.
Anyhow, it happened and we now have two excellent holes in a fence.
Let's look!