Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john" <deanwork2003@...> wrote:
>.... I keep thinking the gallery and museum community needs to become involved with all this somehow. I just don't think a lot of them know about it yet. I mean, this isn't like the old days where people keep using the same materials decade after decade. These days every year has a whole new crop of inks and media to think about. And as we can see, they aren't all the same.
> 
> john

John, as you probably know, I come from that world. I was the Senior research photographic scientist at the Smithsonian Institution for 10 years before going back into private practice.  I know many photo conservators, conservation scientists, archivists, librarians, program directors, etc., in the museum and archives community.  And thus I can say with pretty good authority that this community is not going to help me with my research on digital print media.  For one thing, AaI&A is not a non profit organization which disqualifies it from most grant programs to the arts and sciences.  For another, even if AaI&A was eligible for grants, it takes months and months, even years to secure a decent grant. The grant proposal process is good for people who already have some sort of institutional job and can collect a regular paycheck while writing proposals and waiting through the long approval processes. AaI&A has no such safety net, so looking to the museum and archives community for financial support is basically a non starter. 

Non profit organizations like museums and archives also rely heavily on corporate donations. They would therefore carefully avoid any connection with research that produces product-specific test results.  For example, you don't see product-specific print permanence research from IPI.  IPI is a well funded non profit research lab connected to a major academic institution (RIT).  It does great work but of a generalized "caring for your photographs" nature.  You won't find Fuji/kodak, HP/Epson, etc. comparisons ever published by IPI because it's parent organization (RIT) understandably wants to maintain good relationships with the entire corporate world.

Hence, I founded AaI&A to help fill the current print permanence information void for the end-user.  It is this individual photographer or printmaker whom I need to reach for financial support.  I also offer a group sponsorship plan as well.  AaI&A's most likely group sponsors are companies (e.g, a picture framing company) or organizations (e.g, a photography club) that have "no dog in the hunt".  They probably don't sell or manufacture the products AaI&A tests, but their members or customers actively use them and would benefit from a free or discounted membership in AaI&A.  Pro-Imaging.org, an organization of professional photographers, became AaI&A's first group sponsor last September.  The group sponsorship approach may well be the key to AaI&A's success, but I definitely need the help of individual members as well to succeed.  I just have to take it one day at a time.


cheers,

Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com