Digital BW, The Print

> I have been doing some research into historical mediums lately and part of
> that led me to spend time in the archives at the George Eastman House in
> Rochester (which I think are very extensive with many examples of
> extremely
> high quality). So I have been looking at a great deal of vintage
> photography
> that is "supposed" to last for many, many generations. The reality is that
> the substrates are sensitive to the environment. It is becoming more and
> more apparent as I dig, that the proverbial silver print that is
> supposed to
> last centuries may be a theory. I mean that in regards to being exposed to
> light and the elements. I am not a archivist, though I have been
> conversing
> with many about this, but it appears that much of the conventional silver
> prints are on substrates which act like sponges. Those examples of silver
> prints in which the silver has not faded or reacted have essentially been
> kept out of the light and out of the air and in dark, dry contact with
> stable cotton paper (and usually inadvertently so.)
>

Coming from the archives world, I have mentioned this a few times on here,
but it has generally been dismissed... :-)

The above is one of the major reasons behind the development of digital
standards for archiving photographs - to save the many many silver based
images (and other types) that are rapidly deteriorating and to enable them
to be shown and used in some form.

Other than storage in the most ideal of conditions (and probably expensive
sub-zero storage at best), more and more silver based images will continue
top deteriorate, with the rate of that deterioration only increasing

tim