Re: [Leica] Film is Archival

[Spencer Cheng <spencer@aotera.org>]

My father-in-law who passed away earlier this year was a professional
photographer in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (Island of Borneo) for his
working life. He has left behind thousands of B&W negatives (35mm and 2
1/4) of the era between 1940 to about 1980. 

A portion of these negatives are of the aboriginal tribes of Borneo in
their original dress and cultural setting (including headhunters -
really!  :-) which has for the most part being abandoned - they now
wear T-shirts and jeans. Now I don't think they are of any real
monetary value but they may be of value to museums or archives as
cultural records.

One of these days I will contact the museums in Ottawa to see if
anyone would be interested in acquiring or maintaining the
collection.

So, BD, would the digital images being shot today by a local
photographer in Papua New Guinea be viewable by anyone in 2043? 

Did my father-in-law expect that these photographs would likely be his
most important photographic legacy? Of course not. He certainly did
not make any significant money on these images. He made his living
photographing studio portraits, school graduations, official events
like most photographers.

The tough part for most people is trying to figure out 40 years ahead
of time which images willl be of value to the future.

To keep this on topic, I inherited his used Leica and Hassebald bits
to add to my own few Leica and Canon bits with which I hope to make
some images that someone one day would find interesting and worth
keeping. Of course, if digital photography ever becomes standardized
enough to be considered archival, I certainly would consider using it.

Regards
Spencer

>>>>> "bdcolen" == bdcolen  <bdcolen@earthlink.net> writes:

    bdcolen> Uh, hello? All of this discussion of archival media is
    bdcolen> fascinating, but would anyone on this list of hobbyists
    bdcolen> and working pros care to tell us what loss it would be to
    bdcolen> the world if some of our images faded a bit or just plain
    bdcolen> disappeared? I'd certainly love to be discovered after my
    bdcolen> death like a Disfarmer, but somehow I doubt that's in the
    bdcolen> cards. ;-)
- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html