Fujichrome R25 film with fractal triangle patterns

Pilvari Pirtola · April 18

I left some film outside in a box for roughly 7 years, just to experiment with the damages and fungal growth etc.

I got this one roll of FujichromeR25 that I shot and then first developed with Rodinal stand to bw, what I found out that there are these triangular patterns all over the film, looking like Sierpinski fractal triangles and I have been trying to find out what could have caused that effect to happen.
Has anyone seen something like this on film or has anyone ideas about this? I am thinking it could be some kind of crystallization process on emulsion but haven't yet find what exactly.

image1

Image7

After getting the roll scanned on 4K I did a Film Acceleration process for it, bleached and then C41 developing and fixer, I did not bleach it after color developing as I think I will get it scanned as it is now and then do one more round with bleached film.. below are links to scans with a flatbed scanner

r25-triangle-color-01

r25-triangle-color_02

r25-triangle-color_03

Karim D. Ghantous · April 20

That's one of the most interesting things I've seen in a while! Here's something interesting I found:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nchem.2238

Quote

Defect-free Sierpiński triangles can be self-assembled on a silver surface through a combination of molecular design and thermal annealing.

https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/1382259/2024-04-b

Quote

An international team of researchers led by groups from the Max Planck Institute in Marburg and the Phillips University in Marburg has stumbled upon the first regular molecular fractal in nature. They discovered a microbial enzyme - citrate synthase from a cyanobacterium - that spontaneously assembles into a pattern known as the Sierpinski triangle.

Jeff Bernstein · April 20

Sierpinski triangle? As in MGM?!

Grand Hotel (1932). This lamp design, and Sierpinski motif, are visible throughout MGM movies of the 1930s.

Pilvari Pirtola · April 20

6 hours ago, Karim D. Ghantous said:

That's one of the most interesting things I've seen in a while! Here's something interesting I found:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nchem.2238

https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/1382259/2024-04-b

Thanks a lot, that article on Nature looks like a very good lead on what could be the cause as it's specifically silver related!

Pilvari Pirtola · April 20

2 hours ago, Jeff Bernstein said:

Sierpinski triangle? As in MGM?!

Grand Hotel (1932). This lamp design, and Sierpinski motif, are visible throughout MGM movies of the 1930s.

Yes, similar pattern. Did not know about the MGM connection, should read on it, interesting that they've had it.

Joerg Polzfusz · April 20

Hi!

a) The R25 is rather old (production stopped approximately in 1998/99 when the R25 got replaced by the R25N).

b) You don’t know how the film got stored (too hot, too wet, in the Bermuda Triangle 😜, …).

c) If I recall correctly, the R25 doesn’t like to be processed at too hot temperatures as it’s ab EM-25 film.

So it could be a mix of all three factors.

Pilvari Pirtola · April 20

7 minutes ago, Joerg Polzfusz said:

Hi!

a) The R25 is rather old (production stopped approximately in 1998/99 when the R25 got replaced by the R25N).

b) You don’t know how the film got stored (too hot, too wet, in the Bermuda Triangle 😜, …).

c) If I recall correctly, the R25 doesn’t like to be processed at too hot temperatures as it’s ab EM-25 film.

So it could be a mix of all three factors.

Yeah it is old, but I do know how it was stored while I had the film, and I very strongly suspect the outdoor conditions and freezing/unfreezing while being wet/moist have been what caused the process. The article Karim D. Ghantous linked lead me to find some other papers on the subject and temperature changes have been part of tests where silver has been used to make sierpinski fractal patterns.

The flatbed scans after color development hint that it might have been blue layer that had the sierpinski fractals formation, but I did the C41 developing in room temp so not sure how that has affected.

I had couple of R25 rolls lose emulsion completely before developing this one, which is why I went for bw developer first, rodinal stand in +20C.

Pilvari Pirtola · May 8

here's one frame from the 4K scan, green color almost totally missing.

currently trying to find someone who could inspect the film with microscope to see if there's any biological growth and how tiny the fractal patterns go to

Mark Dunn · May 8

This is extraordinary. A work of art in its own right.

Pilvari Pirtola · May 8

46 minutes ago, Mark Dunn said:

This is extraordinary. A work of art in its own right.

Thanks! Already working with a musician to get a fitting soundtrack for it.

Pilvari Pirtola · May 10

Watching the film today i realized that the perforation ghost areas never have the triangle pattern on them, so the process that produced them happened only on area where film was pressed against film while it was in the cartridge.

Also wondering how I did not see that earlier already 😄

Pilvari Pirtola · Friday at 11:25 AM

Btw. does anyone know if Fujichrome R25 was sold ever on other formats than single8?

I suspect the polyester base might be one of the things that are part of the process, as I think same kind of abuse has happened for acetate based films a lot, without getting same looking results.