The Velox Girl

With the aid of the simple editing tools in the Paintbrush application, I have attempted to tidy up the photograph which I bought on a whim a few months ago. I have also cropped it to a square format and applied an 'antique' finish. The earlier version is at www.ipernity.com/doc/341635/40626728

The original photograph was printed on Kodak Velox paper, a very slow printing paper producing a blue-black image suitable for contact printing. As the original print measures 3.25 x 4.25 inches it is reasonable to suppose the negative came from 118 type roll film such as a Box Brownie might need, or a Kodak Model 3 or a Hawk-Eye. All this helps to date the photograph, but the best indicator is on the reverse which has a repeat motif of ‘Kodak/Velox/Paper' in three lines. That dates it to sometime in the 1950s or 1960s, unless the developer was using old stock. Kodak discontinued that paper in 1968.

Kodak advertised Velox as ‘the only photographic paper made exclusively for amateur negatives’. The use of Velox suggests that the print may have been the work of a keen photographer. The imperfections on this particular print indicate it was not made by a laboratory striving to maintain a business reputation.

I know there is no reason not to own photographs which you have not taken yourself, and which are of people whom you do not know, yet my experience with the image makes me feel slightly voyeuristic. Ho-hum.