Have you ever wondered about loss of information in archives caused by material decay? Or about what makes an archival photograph fit-for-purpose?

One of the questions the research project ‘Lifetime of Colour Photographs in Mixed Archival Collections’ aims to tackle is the way material degradation is linked to information content in photographic images. In particular, the point where photographs are no longer ‘fit for purpose’ is of interest.  To understand this better this question will be explored with various groups of stakeholders - curators and custodians to photographic collectors, scientists and the general public - in order to capture a variety of opinions.

The aim of the workshops is to define the point at which changes in information content is no longer considered to be acceptable for photographs in archives. The workshops will start with a brief introduction to the project and the exercise. The assessment exercise will consist of a classification exercise of photographs at different stages of degradation. This will be followed by a brief discussion on any issues arising from the exercise. Following the workshops and data analysis, a report on the results of the workshop will be circulated to all participants.

If none of these dates are appropriate, please contact me as further workshops are planned for the future.

Ann Fenech – PhD Student
E-mail: a.fenech@ucl.ac.uk 
Phone No: 020 7679 1973
Supervisors: Matija Strlič (UCL-CSH) and Nancy Bell (TNA)

This is an AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme additionally supported by The National Archives.