492 Indiana Joe and the Curse of the Archives, Part I

Late Afternoon, Hearst Castle, Door, Stairs and Shadows

Indiana Joe was a moniker hung on me by one of my co-workers when I showed up for work one winter day wearing my REI Expedition hat (a stylish fedora no longer available) and a brown leather jacket. (Trust me, this will be important in a bit.)

If you began photography in the days of the wet darkroom you spent an inordinate amount of time preparing and processing your prints to exacting archival standards. I know I did. I double fixed (with and without hardener), selenium toned, hypo cleared, washed and air dried my prints on my special sized Zone VI drying racks. I mounted my prints on rag mat boards with buffered interleaving papers and put them in “barefoot” polyethylene bags before storing them in Light Impressions Archival Storage Boxes. Not only did we process our precious prints via this sacred ritual, we discussed, debated (quite heatedly, sometimes), experimented and opined without end on proper archival processing techniques. Our photographs must be preserved for eternity! Serious photographic artists would accept nothing less.

As part of a long term project I went back into my stack of Archival Print storage boxes looking for an image from an earlier era. When I opened a box, this is what I think happened:

Now, does it make sense?

If there were ever any images that deserved to fade into greyness, my early photographs should be at the top of the list. What in the world was I thinking at that time?

Tune in next week, to see how Indiana Joe escapes the Curse of the Archives…

Comments

[Ed Wolpov]

Boy, I can sure relate to that!