Old Camera Found At Goodwill Contained Photos Of A Forgotten Tragedy

No one likes to dwell on all the things that could possibly go wrong, but Kati Dimoff from Portland, Oregon got a taste of the world’s dangers when she stumbled across a camera containing scenes from a forgotten disaster. She was thrifting at a Goodwill when an old camera containing an undeveloped roll of film, quickly became her most prized discovery.

Picture Perfect

In Portland, a love of photography comes with the territory. Kati Dimoff counts herself as one of the many local photographers who snaps photos of the surrounding Cascadia region. Kati's favorite hobby, however, requires even more patience than waiting for her film to process.

Thrift Shopping

Kati frequents her local thrifts shops in search of old cameras with undeveloped photos. She tells The Oregonian: “The first roll of undeveloped film I ever found had a photo of the Portland International Raceway in maybe the ’70s or the '80s. That inspired me to keep looking for old film in Goodwill cameras.”

A Vintage Treasure

One spring day in Portland, Kati stepped inside her favorite Goodwill and picked up an Argus C2 camera model, which hadn’t been in production for 75 years. The cartridge inside appeared to be aged. Kati rushed it over to a processing lab that specialized in developing old film, but they were missing something.

Tech Obstacles

The lab didn't have the proper machinery to develop the 40-year-old photos in color. Thankfully, they were able to process them in black-and-white, which was plenty for Kati. When she came to pick up the prints, the lab workers had to let her know how special her discovery was.