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Re: Preservation negatives



Catherine,

I am in a very similar situation.  After spending a great deal of time
establishing a photographic reproduction policy and contracting with a new
photographer, I have discovered that he is quite resistant to doing actual
"photographic" work.  We had been working with a photographer that was not the
best, quality-wise, and who only provided 35mm negatives.  Upon investigation,
we switched to an excellent professional photographer that does work for our
University Museum.   Our department made a policy decision that we are to get
negatives made for all copywork done from original prints (where we have no
neg.) and that we get a 2 1/4" negative (4x5 is preferable but the cost is
prohibative).

AFter working with the new photographer for awhile, I learned that despite our
specification of having copy negatives made from existing photoprints, that he
was really only doing scanning (I don't handle the actual photo requests).  He
will do real photographic work ONLY if we are insistent and adamant;  he made
it clear that he is moving away from darkroom work and is pushing scanning.
The problem is compounded when we want him to shoot something from a book--in
the past, photographers would take a photograph, now they want to scan.
Obviously this is a preservation concern as well.

What I find particularly daunting is that in order to get good, preservation
quality work done, one has to be quite forceful with the photographer.  If the
professional photography field is moving away from traditional negatives, I
wonder how long we can insist on copy negatives?  I am sure that high-end
studios or professionals will provide the service, but if one is not
conveniently near a large metropolis, how likely is it to have such a studio
nearby?  Just some thoughts.

Erika Gorder
Associate University Archivist
Rutgers University Archives
Special Collections and University Archives


Catherine Bruck wrote:

> I had a someone distrubing conversation yesterday with my contact at the
> professional photo lab where I send my photo orders, and I'm wondering if
> others are encountering this situation.  When I need a copy of a historic
> image, and the only thing I have to start with is the vintage print, I send
> it to this lab and ask them to make a copy negative (traditional film
> negative) and make the prints from that interneg.  That's been the
> proceedure for three years now.  Last week instead of getting the negative
> back as usual, I got a small paper printout of the image referencing the
> file number the lab had assigned to the scanned image (which they will hold
> for one year).  The photographic prints I received had been made from the
> scan obviously.
>
> When I called to explain the error and let them know I needed the film
> negative as originally requested, there followed a long explanation of the
> (lab's) preference for digital imaging and detailed explanations of how the
> images could be put on CD-ROMs, stored on my hard drive, done in low res
> and high res, etc., etc.  -- all of which I knew and didn't need explained
> to me.  I countered with the explanation that the archival field's current
> recommendation continues to be a film negative FOR PRESERVATION PURPOSES,
> even if a digital image is available FOR ACCESS PURPOSES.
>
> The outcome is this:  the lab will continue to make film negatives at my
> insistence, but I was getting the message that they will not do this
> indefinately.  Furthermore, even if I send a vintage print and they make a
> film negative for me, they will make the prints from a scanned image, not
> from the negative.
>
> Help!  What do the rest of you think?
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>