Note: this is the second part to a story we began covering in January. To read the first part, CLICK HERE.
Todd Bieber’s found-film mystery has finally come to an end. After months of searching, the NYC filmmaker has returned the small canister of film he discovered in a snow-covered park to its rightful owner, a fitting conclusion to the fascinating story. Bieber reveals in a new video post that the photographer behind the mysterious images is actually a French woman (he correctly guessed that she would be European) named Camille.
After the first YouTube clip documenting his mission went viral in January, Bieber says the initial outpouring of interest was incredible — he received 500 emails in four days, including from people all over the world offering their couches should he need a place to stay on his quest to find the canister’s owner.
However, it wasn’t until he received an email from a woman named Stephanie in Paris that he knew he was finally on to something. Stephanie wrote that she had seen Bieber’s video on the internet, and that she recognized her old NYC apartment from the photos. She pointed Bieber to her old roommate, Camille, who indeed turned out to be the long lost photographer.
“I booked the flight literally hours after I confirmed that this was real,” he said.
So what did Bieber do next? He flew to Paris so he could personally give Camille back her photos. First, however, he traveled all over Europe — Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Italy — visiting fans who had cheered on his project. Of course, he documented it all.
When he finally got to Paris, Camille revealed she had been a student in New York when the blizzard hit, and that the people in the photos are her visiting family. Remember the photo above? The two men are actually Camille’s older brothers.
In all, Bieber’s journey led him from a batch of mysterious and beautiful photographs, halfway across the world and into the homes of some very nice people. So what’s the moral of the story? “Basically I made a simple silly choice and it led to one of the most amazing/crazy experiences in my life,” Bieber says. “So I’m going to keep doing stuff like that.”
I would add one more thing … always bring your camera wherever you go.
To see the final entry in Bieber’s video diary, check out his YouTube video.