Mystery film is reunited with family

A PLYMOUTH wedding photographer who was determined to solve the mystery of how a long-lost camera ended up being in her possession has managed to track down the family who once owned it – and reunite them with a set of never-seen-before images.

- SARAH ELMES

Leah Karen, who has been interested in film photography since 2018, when she was given her grandfather’s old camera, is still in disbelief after another camera made its way to her in a set of very mysterious circumstances.

Leah’s partner, Pete, used to work at Plymouth railway station, where a plastic point-and-shoot 25mm camera was handed into him one day. Knowing Leah was interested in film cameras, Pete told her, if nobody came forward to claim it from lost property, she could keep it.

The camera, which Leah, aged 33, said was ‘essentially a reusable version of a disposable camera’ and ‘very basic’, was stored away in a cupboard and forgotten about. Last month, when Leah was looking through her collection of vintage cameras, she stumbled upon the mysterious item once more – and was shocked to discover it still had film inside it.

Rushing to Soper Photographic in Ebrington Street to have the film developed, the mystery deepened even further and Leah, who grew up in Torpoint but now lives in Plymouth, was left in a ‘state of shock’.

Leah did her best to pick up any clues from the series of photographs – images of a family in their garden – but was stumped. That is when she decided to use the power of social media in an attempt to track down those pictured. To her surprise, within just two hours, she had found them.

Now the photographs have been ‘returned to their rightful home’ after almost three decades. Gareth and Ali Davis invited Leah to their house in Plympton and told her all about the people in the photographs, one of whom (inset, right) is sadly no longer alive.