|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Rundbrief Fotografie
|
||
Why conserve photographs?
Normally, it is not necessary to ask the question: Why conserve
photographs? There is an abundance of obvious answers. Photographs
of all types are valued on many levels in varied contexts,
worldwide. An international professional conservation specialty
has developed in the last thirty years in response to the
widespread understanding that photographs need and warrant special
attention for their preservation. However, these are not normal
times for either photography or photographs. It is now quite
timely to ask this question, particularly of the conservator of
photographs, and to listen to the answers given.
(Digital) Photography: Discussion of Professional Ethics
The members of the Photographic Materials Group (PMG) of the
American Institute for Conservation (AIC) are currently discussing
the changes that the introduction of digital photography to their
profession may mean. This debate is being accompanied and deepened
by various articles in the organization's newsletter, the AIC
News. One of these was "Digital Documentation: We are There, but
Enter with Care". It soon became clear that questions of
terminology had to be clarified first. The most fundamental
question 'What is a photograph?' was therefore the topic of a
panel discussion at last year's annual meeting of the AIC (9-14
June 2004 in Portland, Oregon). The following article by the
present chairman of the PMG, also resulted from this
discussion.'
"Ceçi n'est pas une pipe": Comments on the Professional
Ethics of Digitization
Discussions on conservation and digitization projects are
usually of a pragmatic nature. A different approach is chosen
here: in six short chapters, a principle problem of collecting,
preserving, providing access, and conveying information in the
digital age is examined. The future of authenticity is the topic;
building blocks for considerations of a further development of
modes of handling in the area of the digital duplication of
photographs-based on cultural history and professional ethics-are
introduced, and with them handling issues with digital
'photographs' are discussed. Without the development of the
associated disciplines and institutions with a common aim, without
future-oriented analyses of the current conditions, and without
the discussion of methods of preservation and providing access to
the collection material against the background of theoretical
considerations, projects in the political-cultural fields will
again and again only become entangled in the pitfalls of
short-sighted activities or rush breathlessly from project to
project, following the advancing realities of decay or budget
cuts.
SEPIA (Safeguarding European Photographic Images for Access):
http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/sepia
| Timeline of Photography: http://www.iapp.de/krone/timeline/index.htm
| Bundesverband der Pressebild-Agenturen und Bildarchive (BVPA):
http://www.bvpa.org/m.html
Virtual Photograph Museums: Problems and Promises
What are the advantages and disadvantages of presenting
photographs in an online virtual photograph museum? What are the
specific problems that designers of a virtual museum face? The
following considerations should be regarded as introductory
remarks rather than final statements. They should serve to
encourage discussions on this topic within the community of those
who work professionally with photograph archives and with the
preservation of photographs. The proposed key condition of this
article is simple: creating a virtual museum means more than
simply allowing online access to something. A virtual museum is
not just an access tool with clickable buttons. It is a complex
cultural and ideological affair just as much as a challenge for
designers that is a result of both expertise and creativity.
„museum of museums": http://www.museumlink.com/virtual.htm
| Archives & Museum Informatics: http://www.archimuse.com
The Technology of Cameras and Photography in Journalistic
Applications: 1914-1932 (Part II)
Beside the classical sheet film cameras, press photographers of
the First World War used, for the first time, smaller format
cameras and roll films, which, even enduring the stresses of front
line combat, proved to technically function satisfactorily.
Photographers later, however, returned to using larger sized
camera models. Press photographers who arrived on the scene in the
late 1920's as untrained photographers and/or auto-didacts liked
the advantages of the simpler devices for their work and
preferentially used the medium and small format camera models with
particularly fast lenses and a variety of changeable focal
lengths, like the Ermanox and the Leica, available since 1924/25.
New panchromatic emulsions of the late 1920's that were noticeably
more light-sensitive and had a finer grain were advantageous not
only to small format, but also to the medium format photography.
Of the latter, the Makina and the Rolleiflex became the major
camera models for press photography. Despite this technical
progress, many press photographers retained a familiar workflow;
for the daily routine of dispatching images to the editors, it was
faster to produce series of prints by contact copying larger sized
plates.
Laterna magica: Glass Pictures of World-wide Images
Similar to embracing historical practice when performing
music-interpretation of historic compositions with instruments of
its time-Ruth Baumer and Günther Holzhey would like to apply
the approach to an optical medium. At first, only hand-painted,
movable laterna magica images were sought. In view of the
diversity of pictures made for projection, the variability of
their manufacturing processes, their themes, etc., however, the
authors had to broaden the scope of their project. In addition,
their knowledge of the actual effects that laterna magica pictures
had in history grew; Baumer and Holzhey tested the effectiveness
of the historic medium with their public. Today's perception
routines are consciously questioned. The public enjoyed and
accepted the personal presence of the presenters, the production
with its noises and its music, the picturesque nature of the
hand-painted pictures, and the poetry of the old photographic
series. The appreciation of the historical content of the show was
comparable. Can the social, political or philosophical questions
of earlier times be made comprehensible, and does this put today's
key debates in a different perspective? These issues form the
conditions for decisions concerning acquisitions for the
collection of by now 6,000 projection slides, which is associated
to a collection of old projection devices that is publicly
accessible.
Museum für optische & akustische Attraktionen,
Nördlingen: http://www.musicamagica.de
|
|
|
|
|
