I took this photo in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood, in Febuary of 1986. This was the Solar camera and photography store that was located on South Kedzie Avenue and west 43rd Street -aka Pope John Paul 2nd Drive. I patronized this neighborhood camera shop throughout the 1980's, as all of My early railfan photographs seen here at Eddie's Railfan Page were developed here. This camera store served everyone from Wedding and Portrait photographers, as well as Railfan photographers and local Historians like Myself. The store was located on South Kedzie avenue, just one city block north of South Archer Avenue. It went out of business at some point during the 1990's, but the staff working there was one of the nicest group of people I have ever met yet.
17 comments:
Nice photo Eddie. It brings up a question I have been meaning to ask you....what was the name of that auto parts store that I think was close by? It was a yellow painted brick building, and it had a guy with a long skinny neck and glasses painted on the corner of the building. I want to say it was something like Forest City Auto Parts, but I could be wrong. If you remember what I am talking about, was it close to this photo?
Dennis
Hi Dennis!
Great hearing from You.
Yes, the nearby Auto Parts store was called Forest City Auto Parts. It was on the west side of South kedzie Avenue near the little Archer & Kedzie Bowl. ( closed)
I believe that the Forest City Auto Parts store here, is now a Family Dollar store. During the 1960's and 70's..it was a Robert Hall mens clothing store.
Thank You.
Eddie K.
I "graduated" from a Kodak Instamatic 110 to a Minolta Hi-Matic FP rangefinder bought at Solar. About a couple years later I returned to make my own purchase of a Minolta SRT102 SLR. Loved that place.
I got my first film developed at Solar! It was a roll of 110 film. I also got my first enlargement there - a waterfall photo I took in Florida when I was about 12.
Cool memories.
Another picture from memory lane. From the picture it looks like the lot just south of SOLAR is still vacant. I remember the December day either '79 or '80 when the PVA on that site went up in smoke.
Most of the people who worked there were friendly, however there was this young chubby girl who worked there, that liked sticking
her nose and opinnion into everybodys business. I avoided her.
I think She eventually quit or had gotten fired.
My August 1990 vacation photographs from Strasburg Pennsylvania were developed here. I have posted photos from that trip of the Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania here at My blogsite.
Thank You.
Eddie K.
Thanks very much for sharing this photo. My buddy Ed and I used to shoot three-minute monster movies in Super-8, and we bought all of our film (and also got it developed) at Solar. Good times.
Hi Eddie:
Came across your blog while looking up Solar off of some old 8mm films that I found in my grandmothers belongings. They are post dated July 1962. Thanks for the cool photo!
I found some Coupons (from the 60's maybe) for this store. I was going to mail them if it still existed, but when I googled it all I really got was this from your blog. The coupons range from 1 cent to a wopping 25 cents. If you're interested give me your address and I will mail them to you.
I worked there from 1968 to 1970. My first job. Quite an interesting experience. I worked in the back not in the "store".
I'm impressed!
Quite in-depth
design:) Found this here on eddiesrailroad.blogspot.com [url=http://easyrvoutdoors.com]RVs[/url]
I bought a ton of stuff by mail order from them. I happened to be scanning some old slides - developed by them, and put into their own plastic sleeve holders.
They were very nice folks.
Far from being a neighborhood photo shop, Solar Cine Products sent out a catalog to customers throughout the country. Together with Superior Bulk Film Company, they were the two major suppliers of goods and services to narrow guage filmmakers.
Dear Mr. Dean,
Can I found any catalog of Solar Cine Products in PDF or scans anywhere?
Thank you so much.
Regards,
Erkan
This picture brings back so many memories. I worked there for awhile back in 1973. In the back, checking soundstriping and mail.
I was a happy Solar customer in 1965-1970 era. Lived a block from, and worked at Corwith yard. Nice folks indeed at Solar. I took about a roll of film a week then. There were usually cars parked in front with people looking at their pictures, just couldn't wait! I tried taking some arts-fartsy shots in fog one time. When I picked up the slides there was no charge and I got a free roll of slide film--they thought they had messed up my film when it was just my attempt to be artsy. Rest of the roll was OK.
Glad I found this page.
R.B.
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