Serendipity

Too dark or too flat prints that would usually go straight into the waste basket, can sometimes be resurrected as 2nd pass lith prints. Maybe not as good prints, but sometimes as interesting prints; in other words an other form of rubbish that differs slightly from trash.

Unfortunately, bleaching and redeveloping a print can also bring old sins to the surface. A bad fixer or insufficient washing can leave stains or imperfections that are enhanced by the 2nd pass. But as we all know, sins can be sweet too.

This was a minute long exposure at night, and the neg was printed on matt Agfa Classic fibrebased paper. It was a rubbish print, too dark and too low in contrast even at grade 5. Bleaching revealed a multitude of spots and streaks that, and redeveloping in lith developer (Moersch Easy Lith, good stuff) turned some of those streaks into black shooting stars. The building was demolished a few days after this photo was made.