Bad preservation! evaluation afternoon ,,,

storage

old lessons and my old examination "of CRIMES VINTAGE"

During the 1920s, a photographer working for the Sydney Police Department in Australia took mug shots of all newly arrested suspects. This anonymous photographer created a series of images that are powerful portraits and also a remarkable historical record.

Comparing these vintage images to modern mug shots, the differences between the 1920s and the 2010s are striking. From the image of a dismayed and old looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn to a drunk and wasted Nick Nolte, modern mug shots, particularly of the famous, convey the message “look how far the mighty have fallen.” They are like ancient Greek morality play that reassures us that even the powerful can be brought down by their greed and lust.

Looking at these 1920s mug shots there is also a reminder of how profoundly photography had changed the world.

Prior to 1840, it was only the rich and powerful who could afford to have their portraits done. Photography eventually made it possible for ordinary people to have portraits as well but it remained a special event. The photographer and their magical, high tech studio full of lighting and tripods was like a painter’s atelier.

Even for these Australian criminals having their mug shots taken was special. Perhaps a sign of accomplishment so it was important to look good and to be at one’s most stylish and dapper. A first arrest was a rite of passage and an important step in a criminal career. We have to look no farther than the 20th century’s own “Dapper John” Gotti to see proof of that.

Remarkable Lighting
From a photographer’s point of view, the vintage mug shots are remarkable for their lighting. It is diffuse, rather soft and it gives the faces and bodies a quality of roundness and weight. That is a far cry from modern mug shots with their brutally harsh lighting that makes a suspects look the worse for wear, driving home the certainty of their guilt.

This kind of broad lighting was typical of studio photography in the 1920s and 1930s as can be seen in Arkansas photographer Mike Disframer’s, “Heber Springs” photographs.

Many of the vintage mug shots had short descriptions of the suspects and their crimes written on them by the photographer. These commentaries are often surprising.
At first glance, the image on the right of E. Falleni's worn and tired face looks like that of a factory worker. But it turns out that the E. stands for Eugenia and she had been passing as a man since 1899.  In 1914, as "Harry Crawford," she married the widow Annie Birkett, who after announcing to a relative that she had discovered "something amazing about Harry," disappeared.

Cryptically scratched into the emulsion of another photo (below) are the words “this man refused to open his eyes.” The small act of rebellion brings this image of one Thomas Bede to life; reminding me of something I had once read, “vividly legible in historical photographs: there is always a defeat of Time…” (Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, 1980)

Thomas Bede is long dead although in this image, he, like the others, is strikingly alive. They all had lots of life ahead of them when they were photographed yet we know that they all died long ago. They are both alive and dead to us, which creates a feeling that Bathes names,“the vertigo of Time defeated.”

You could say that these vintage mug shots are a reminder that was our job as photographers may be to defeat time itself.

Broken

•It is best to store broken plates flat – to do so you may have to store them separately from the main group. When stored flat do not stack the plates in large groups as this places weight and pressure on the bottom plates in the stack.

•Broken plates can be stored between two sheets of mount board – this storage system is best for collections that will not be accessed in the future. The mountboard must pass the Photographic Activity Test (PAT) – ask your supplier about this.

•Cut mount board 10mm larger than the dimensions of the plate.

•Arrange the pieces of the plate on one of the sheets of board and then cover with the other sheet.

•Keep the sandwich sitting flat on your work surface and slide it to the edge of the table allowing about 20 mm to overhang the edge.

•Tape each edge of the board sandwich with gummed linen tape – rotating each edge over the lip of the table to allow access. Attach the tape and fold it around the board to the other side. Burnish the tape down gently with a bone folder (or similar) to ensure good adhesion. Allow the tape to dry thoroughly before placing into storage box.

•Label the “sandwich” of board with “Fragile, broken glass” and any handling or access instructions you wish.

Red light district

"When he died, 89 glass-plate negatives were found in his desk showing prostitutes taken in around 1912 in ‘Storyville‘ the red light district of New Orleans".

...The 89 glass-plate are in different stages of corrosion, deterioration of decay.

in my opinion the best method to print the glass-plate of E.J.BELLOCQ with ARISTO PAPER.

The aristo paper was evident in the image of the type that is printable view of the direct action of sunlight, thanks of gold chloride, acquired intense shades of brown and had to be immersed in a fixing bath to assign colors to particular copy.
The aristo paper's had a remarkable,replacing almost completely than albumun,but in 1920 fell into disuse in turn.




...and now? an iced tea?! from BELLOCQ TEA!!!
metro L.Circle, DISTRECT SLOANE SQUARE london

Carpe Diem

good

doves being restored

silver degradation

Silver mirroring is a bluish metallic sheen appearing on the surface of silver based photographs as result of ageing. One of the photographic processes most affected by silver mirroring is that of silver gelatin glass negatives, the most common photographic negative process between the 1880s and the 1920s when they were slowly replaced by nitrate and acetate negatives. The present research was initiated by the findings of plates that, beside the usual silver mirroring along the negative edges, had mirroring stains at the centre of the plate whose shape matched the creases of the glassine envelope in which the plates were stored. An informal inquiry among photographic conservators revealed that patterns connected to the enclosure material are rather common and they are not necessarily related to the poor quality of the material. Although silver mirroring has been observed since the early years of silver gelatin photography and it has been investigated again and again in the course of the XX century, confusion is still present on its chemical composition, on the compounds responsible for its formation and on the reasons for the specific patterns. The aim of this work is to better understand the mechanisms of both local and pattern formation of silver mirroring in order to set the choice of best suited enclosure materials and storage conditions on a more rational basis. This work is focused on silver gelatin glass negatives but the results and models here presented can be easily applied to other photographic processes exhibiting silver mirroring
Silver gelatin glass negatives, also called gelatin dry plates, were the most common negative process in the years between the 1880s and the 1920s when they were slowly replaced by nitrate and acetate negatives. They have glass plates of different dimensions and of thickness of the order of 1-2 mm as a base. The emulsion, of thickness of the order of 50 micrometers, is applied
on one side of the plate. It is made of gelatin and, in most cases, of silver bromide grains which turn to metallic silver after chemical development.

The possible shapes of silver mirroring degradation on silver gelatin glass plates will be divided in two main groups based on the location of the stain on the negative: edge patterns and inner patterns. Edge patterns include all the cases in which the mirroring stain is distributed at the four edges of the plate. The features of the stain can vary in width, detailed shape, sharpness and colour but it can always be identified as a stripe all along the plate edges. Edge patterns are the most usual silver mirroring patterns. Inner patterns include all the cases in which the silver mirroring stain is located either at the centre of the negative or, when present at the edges, has a shape not falling under the definition of edge patterns. Spots, lines, irregular shapes of silver mirroring are categorised as inner patterns.

Silver mirroring edge patterns are so common on silver gelatin glass negatives that they are sometimes used to distinguish this photographic process from other types of glass negatives.Although there is a large variety in their features, they always seem to bear a relation with theway historical negatives were normally stored, i.e. in stacks.In some cases the mirroring extension is constant all along the four sides but very often it variessteadily between the centre of the sides and the corners, usually being smaller at the cornersthan at the centre of the sides.Among the constant extension cases, examples of both narrowstain (Fig. 1) and of wide stain partially obscuring the image (Fig. 2) were found. In the mostadvanced cases silver mirroring can cover almost the entire plate surface.

Silver gelatin glass negative. study collection (~1910).
The mirroring sheen is narrow and blunt, just visible at the plate edges.
Silver gelatin glass negative. study collection (~1910).
The mirroring stain iswide, partially obscuring the image.

Silver gelatin glass negative. study collection (~1910).
Spot of silver mirroring connected with a black spot on the storage glassine envelope. For purpose of showing this effect, the plate is shifted to the top.



Silver gelatin glass negative. ~1915.
Stripes of silver mirroring (a) similar to the creases of the glassine envelope (b)in which the plate was stored.
private collection