Tag Archive for 'photographs'

Faded glory or historically charming?

Published by Anne-Marie Van de Ven 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photo by Bruno Benini, scan by Nitsa Yioupros © Estate of Bruno Benini

The assigned value and significance of objects is in a state of perpetual flux. Evolving digital technologies (like the potential to create high resolution scans from original negative and positive formats and distribute these over the web) contributes to, engages with and draws attention to this constant process of change.

Recently, the Powerhouse Museum acquired the fashion photography archive of Bruno Benini, an Italian-born Melbourne-based Australian fashion photographer (b. Italy 1925, migrated to Australia 1935, died Melbourne 2001). As Benini worked mainly for newsprint, the bulk of the images in the archive are black and white (prints, contacts sheets, proofs prints, negative film, etc). There are also substantial numbers of colour photographs (transparencies and prints, and colour pages from newspapers and magazines which show these images in print). Among these are numerous large format (4×5 inch) colour negatives including the 1960s image above of Janice Wakely modelling a Cole of California swimsuit which I’ve blogged about previously on Photo of the Day. In this digital version of the image, the transparency has been captured in its entirety as an authentic original object, providing evidence of its condition and format.

This work, like many other colour transparencies, has faded over time, as the dyes and emulsions used on photographic film wasn’t always stable. At what point might these images irretrievably decline in value and loose their significance?

Storing negatives and transparencies at low temperature, with no light and in a low humidity environment can slow the deterioration process sufficiently to ensure many years of future visual reference and viewing pleasure, but the deterioration process can only be decelerated, it is non-reversible. Although today’s computer editing software can manually colour correct fading digitally, by adding and reinstating missing colours or reducing the amount of the remaining colours (as we see in the colour corrected and digitally enhanced image of Benini colour transparency below), when is a digital reproduction most meaningful? In it’s authentic state above, or when enhanced as seen below?

Colour transparency, colour corrected and digitally enhanced. © Estate of Bruno Benini

In 2007, the team that was developing the Fashion from Fleece: 200 Years of Wool in Fashion exhibition, visited the basement stores to view Australian Wool Board images in the Henry Talbot fashion photography archive. From a curatorial and collection perspective, we were initially disappointed and concerned that the selected images had, on close inspection, faded. However, somewhat to my relief and surprise, I discovered during this inspection that photographers and creative directors don’t necessarily view this deterioration with trepidation or as something detrimental. They see it as something that happens over time, and that it can be viewed as visually arresting and historically charming. When viewing the faded Talbot transparencies, the Creative Director Chris Dent, had no qualm or compunction about planning to use the images in his design layout. He felt the fading was something he could work with to communicate a fresh ‘historical’ perspective … graphically. In this context, fading was seen to provide a sense of history.

I was interested to see this view expressed again earlier this year when we were developing the Creating the look: Benini and fashion photography exhibition. In an interview with photographer Juli Balla (whose work features as one of four contemporary case studies in the exhibition), she too expressed a view that the faded glory of colour transparencies provided her with inspiration and a special hook, or tool, for revisiting and ‘re-visualising’ the 1960s look in her photographs for Grazia Italia’s Bridget Bardot Story (2010).

One of my favourite pictures of Benini’s is this one with the cute little tents on the beach. I love the colours. Recently I did an assignment for ‘Grazia’ magazine, Italy. It was about Brigitte Bardot and it was styled as if Brigitte Bardot would have worn it in the 60s. I used a colour treatment on the pictures which really looks quite like this image of Bruno’s. It’s not something he [Benini] did on purpose. It is just a technique which happens to the transparencies over time, but it is so beautiful. It suits this [Bardot] story to a ‘T’.

Interview with Juli Balla, June 2010

Juli Balla for Bridget Bardot Story, Grazia Italia, 2010. Fashion: Dolce Gabbana; Model: Millicent; Hair: Michael Brennan; Makeup: Rae Morris; Styling: Tamara Gianoglio. © Juli Balla

Juli Balla for Bridget Bardot Story, Grazia Italia, 2010. Fashion: Dolce Gabbana; Model: Millicent; Hair: Michael Brennan; Makeup: Rae Morris; Styling: Tamara Gianoglio. © Juli Balla

When she was creating these photographs for the Bridget Bardot Story, Balla wasn’t familiar with Benini’s tent image, but she had obviously seen and been inspired by similar images. When asked to comment on Benini’s work for the Creating the look exhibition video, she was naturally drawn to this particular image in the context of her own work.

I now also recall an earlier experience that I had with faded images when the Museum was developing the Henry Talbot fashion photography archive and collection. Looking to acquire Talbot’s image of the model Penny Pardey with the scooter, rather than acquiring the vintage print, we chose a more recent Cibachrome print, as the vintage print had faded so much that it was considered un-useful and useable.

Photo by Henry Talbot, 1967. © Estate of Henry Talbot

The vintage print showed Pierre Cardin’s vibrant hot pink mini-dress (seen beautifully on the original, then un-faded, colour transparency) as pale orange because the print had been over exposed to light. In hindsight, should we also have acquired the faded print for its historical appeal and significance? Maybe not. There’s probably a limit to how long photographic image fading can remain historically significant, interesting or appealing.

Please feel free to comment and share your expertise and experience of working with, or being inspired, by faded colour transparencies. Also please feel free to post and comment about different approaches to digitally scanning original negatives and transparencies eg retaining the borders, keeping the fading, leave all evidence of damage – or enhancing original materials. I’m sure readers would like to hear your views on these topics, and see examples – for example where you too were inspired by the faded charm of historical colour transparencies. If you would like to see more Benini and Balla images, please visit the Creating the look: Benini and fashion photography exhibition (August 2010 – April 2011).

Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator

Reference:
Denis Nikitenko, Michael Wirth & Kataline Trudel, Applicability Of White-Balancing Algorithms to Restoring Faded Colour Slides: An Empirical Evaluation, JOURNAL OF MULTIMEDIA, VOL. 3, NO. 5, DECEMBER 2008 (Accessed 2 December 2010)

Conservator’s Corner- Using digital photography to recover daguerreotypes

Published by Erika Taylor 1 Comment Tags: , , .

One of the Museum’s projects has been condition reporting, treating and re-housing the Early Photography Collection of Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes.

The daguerreotype was one of the earliest forms of photography. It is a permanently fixed, mirror-like silver image on a polished copper plate. By adjusting the angle it is held by, you can see a positive or a negative image, or it can appear like a mirror. It was a one-off and very delicate – the image can be destroyed by touch.

The daguerreotype was encased in an enclosure made from a variety of materials – glass, wood, leather, textile and paper. These materials all deteriorate differently and may also interact deleteriously with each other. This means that there is no perfect way to treat and store the whole object.

This 1850s daguerreotype of Melbourne had been dismantled previously. It was in pieces and very dirty. The image was very faded and difficult to decipher either with the naked eye or normal photography.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Conservator Rebecca Main removed the glass, matte and daguerreotype plate from the case and cleaned them. Because the daguerreotype itself could not be touched, the loose specks, dust and pieces of grit were removed by blowing on it with a photography dust blower.

The cleaning made the image a bit more readable, but it was still very faint to the eye. While cleaning it had become apparent that the negative image was sharper, with much more visible detail than when viewed as a positive.

Cleaning the daguerreotype metal plate.
Cleaning the daguerreotype metal plate

The uncovered, cleaned image was then re-photographed by photographer, Chris Brothers. The previous photos had been of the plate as a positive image, this time it was done as a negative image. The plate was held at different angles by Rebecca until the image was at its clearest. Chris took photos of the plate in sections, with a flat softbox light almost directly behind the photographer, making it possible to capture the negative image. Taking photos of the daguerreotype in sections allowed for much flatter and consistent lighting as well as improving the quality and details.

Bottom right hand corner of the daguerreotpye when viewed at a negative angle.

Bottom right hand corner of the daguerreotpye when viewed on a negative angle

Using the Photoshop computer program, the different images were composited –stitched together and inverted to create a new positive image. This revealed far more of the original detail of the daguerreotype.

The combination of conservation treatment, digital photography and image manipulation made it possible to retrieve visual information which had appeared lost when the object was examined by a conservator in 1983.

The composite image reveals much more than the actual positive image.
The composite image reveals much more than the actual positive image

The reassembled object is stored in a clamshell box. The box is constructed from acid free mountboard containing Zeolites or molecular traps. If there are chemicals given off from the daguerreotype or it’s enclosure materials, they will be absorbed by the zeolites. This will create a more neutral micro environment that will help stabilise the object.

Because the photoshopped image contains far more easily visible information, the actual object can safely remain in storage, and the digital image can be used as a research resource.

Samoan War Photographs 1899

Published by Geoff Barker 4 Comments Tags: , , , .
U.S. Marines with naval gun, Upolu, Samoa, 1899, published by Kerry and Co.

U.S. Marines with naval gun, Upolu, Samoa, 1899, published by Kerry and Co.

Here, then, is a singular state of affairs: all the money, luxury, and business of the kingdom centred in one place; that place excepted from the native government and administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding it not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them like a bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own end. Robert Louis Stevenson 1892

The above quote taken from Stevenson’s insightful, and surprisingly humorous, account of the war which erupted at Apia in Samoa is proof even great writing can fail to turn the tide of war. In this 1889 encounter peace was only reached after nature herself intervened in the form of a hurricane. Playing no favourites it sank and damaged all but one of the American, German and British ships confronting each other in Apia harbour.

Unfortunately Stevenson’s object lesson in the pointlessness of war appears to have been ignored. As a result the people of Samoa were faced with the exact same predicament as European intrigue exacerbated existing tensions in Samoa which erupted into civil war in 1899. In an astounding turn of events the American heavy cruiser U.S.S. Philadelphia shelled Apia on March the 14th almost ten years to the day of the anniversary of the hurricane which ended the first conflict.

The shelling was done in an attempt to dissolve a provisional government set up by Mata’afa and Germany but instead it inflamed the hostilities and Mata’afa’s forces attacked houses in Apia, particularly the Tivoli Hotel where three American sailors were killed. On 30 March a British and American force under Commander Sturdee, along with about one hundred Samoans supporting chief Malietoa under Lieutenant Gaunt, made their way along the coast driving small numbers of Mata’afa’s men before them.

Malietoa supporters and United Sates marines on the streets of Apia, 1899, published by Kerry and Co.

Malietoa supporters and marines on the streets of Apia, 1899, published by Kerry and Co.

On the first of April, and no doubt feeling full of confidence at the ease with which they were forcing Mata’afa’s forces off the coast, they pursued him inland. This tactic was foolhardy in the extreme as they were no longer covered by the fire of the warships and were attacked by thousands of Mata’afa’s men. While only seven were killed, the historian Paul Kennedy considered these were, ‘remarkably light considering the circumstances’. The upshot of all this activity was the establishment of Samoan, American and British forces along the coast while Mata’afa’s Samoan forces and the Germans were firmly entrenched in the interior. The inevitable deadlock was broken by a ceasefire announced on 25 April and in May 1899.

This second conflict was not covered by the Stevenson’s pen but by another medium, photography. The Powerhouse Museum’s ‘Tyrrell Collection’ contains twenty-six glass plate negatives taken during the conflict, which, while not containing the erudite flourishes of an author, do give us some realistic insights into this civil war. These photographs were originally published by the Sydney firm of Kerry and Co., although it is unlikely the company actually took the photographs themselves.

Alastair Morrison

Published by Christina Sumner 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

Jain shrine donated by Alastair Morrison. Collection, Powerhouse Museum


Alastair Morrison, Life Fellow and great friend of the Powerhouse Museum, passed away on Tuesday 4 August, aged 93. Alastair was one of the Museum’s most consistent and generous donors over a long period of time, in particular with gifts to the Asian collections and working closely with curator Claire Roberts.

Most notable among his many gifts was an extensive collection of wonderful photographs by his wife Hedda Morrison, including many of her original prints; these document Beijing (then Peking) and China in the 1930s and 40s as well as Sarawak in north west Borneo where Alastair and Hedda lived for 19 years, until moving to Canberra in the late 1960s. Alastair also donated two large collections of mostly Indian and Nepali bronze figurines reflecting the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist philosophies, many of which are now on display at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre. And, in the last few months, we received a superb collection of early Sukothai and Sawankhalok (Thai) and Annamese (Vietnamese) ceramics of the 1400s and 1500s, which curator Min-Jung Kim is now documenting for acquisition.

A collector all his life, Alastair was also a writer and a scholar and his gifts to the Museum were accompanied by a range of books from his extensive research library to ours. Although, sadly, I never met Hedda Morrison, I was fortunate to meet and talk with Alastair many times and will always remember in particular his great flair as a story teller and the tantalising glimpses he gave us of a long and interesting life well lived.

His full obituary can be read in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Christina Sumner
Principal Curator Design & Society