ORWO-INFERNO
Testing expired East German ORWO NP 27 120 film. ASA 400, expired 1991. We chose to work with this film specifically because of ORWO's historical pre and post war origins, and more simply because its expired. We were expecting flawed, distorted, and gross images naturally created from the decay of the film emulsion, environmental and storage conditions, and a range of other human-induced conditions; an organic experience inherent with film. This is "natural enhancement" is one of the conceptual foundations of our sub-series "INFERNO." Beauty in things that are ugly.
Below are un-edited scans of some of recent test shots.
SET 1: MAMIYA PRESS with 6x9 film back + 6x6 film mask. Orange filter. Shot at ASA 100, developed in Rodinal 1+40 @ 13 minutes. Scanned on EPSON GT-X970. Experienced some film advance challenges with the Mamiya; hence, the overlap of some frames, as well as forgetting to advance the frame, thus creating multiple exposures.
SET 2: KIEV 60. Shot at ASA 50, developed in Rodinal 1+50 @ 15 minutes. Red filter. Scanned on EPSON GT-X970.
Verdict: ORWO NP 27 400 must have been a very beautiful film stock. It still retains fine grain and beautiful grays. Despite the fact that the rolls expired twenty-six years ago, we still managed to extract some workable images. Moreover, perhaps ASA 50 at around 1/60 ~ 30 @ f/8 seems to be the sweet-spot for this particular batch of film.
With the re-release of other brand films, we hope that ORWO / Filmotec follows suit and puts out some of this classic black and white stock.
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