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It's Daguerre's Birthday
On November 18th, 1787 Louis Daguerre, inventor of one of the first photographic processes, was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France.
He developed the Daguerreotype in 1839. The process continued to be used until 1865.
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...that less than 40% of digital camera owners back up all their digital images on a CD, DVD, or external drive? This leaves the other 60% at risk of losing their digital files as a result of computer breakdowns, viruses, or online storage terminations.
A word of advice: save them twice!
Source: 2007 PMA camera/camcorder, Digital Imaging Surveys. |
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The Impermanence of Permanence
Remarks by James M. Reilly at the IS&T Archiving Conference, May 23, 2007.
 I want to share with you some reflections after more than 25 years of work in the image permanence field. My thesis is that concern for the longevity of images and information waxes and wanes in interesting and sometimes unpredictable ways. Nevertheless, it is possible to make some generalizations that may be useful.
If you Google the word "permanence" the first listed item is about object permanence, which is a concept in child development first described by Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget that occurs at about nine months of age, when infants show awareness that objects persist when they are removed from immediate sight. It's approximately the point when "peek-a-boo" loses its fascination. I was reminded of this definition of permanence during the keynote speech for this conference by Dan Rosen of Warner Brothers, who made a similar point by showing a picture of magnetic tape and observed that, because we humans see no image there, the urgency for taking action to preserve it is reduced.
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Image Permanence vs. Image Preservation
Image permanence is a function of the chemical and physical make-up of the print material and its sensitivity to environmental stress factors such as light, pollution, and extremes of humidity. For example, the long-term stability of a specific print product under normal-use display conditions can be predicted by performing an accelerated lightfastness test. We often see these predictions converted to years of life expectancy for display on the manufacturer's product literature and advertising.
Image preservation is a function of the strategies we  employ to maximize the life of prints. It implies only the measures taken to preserve the print and not how well the print performs after those measures are taken.
Image permanence data has its greatest use in the marketplace where consumers select products to create their digital output in hardcopy form. Once the objects are created however, image permanence data becomes only one component in the development of overall strategies for long-term collection preservation. These strategies will include storage environment recommendations, housing material selection, and display and use policies. |
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Tips & Tricks
Coming Out of the Closet
One advantage of keeping your photos in a closed closet is that it may remain cooler than the rest of the house during winter. Unfortunately it may get hotter during the summer. Closed closets also make air remain stagnant, so if the humidity gets high in the summer there may be a greater risk for mold growth. |
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Term of the Month
Chromogenic Print- Almost all consumer color photographic prints are of this type. In this process, the image-forming dyes are created during processing from colorless dye couplers included in the paper during manufacture.
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Link of the Month
Northeast Document Conservation Center
specializing in the preservation of paper-based materials
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