Week Two

This week I continued my work on the assessment of the collection. One interesting thing that I realized this week is that according to the records kept by the archive, many of the reels are composed of a number of different film formats. For example, one of the films, 2001.35.FilmB, is composed of at least five different film brands, including DuPont B&W reversal, Ansco B&W reversal, Kodak B&W reversal, Agfa B&W reversal and AA-1 B&W spliced together. The condition of these films varies and some are described as having some degree decomposition, while others are described as being in good condition.

I wonder what the implications of these compound films are for their preservation. In class this week, we discussed the importance of not really altering the films in any permanent way. However, it seems to me that we are also told that like materials should be kept together, particularly in the case of nitrate film. My understanding is that nitrate films, as they degrade can pose a hazard to other film materials. If that is the case, it seems that in some cases, unstable films that are spliced into other, stable films should be removed and isolated. Although this would involve some permanent alteration to the original object, it seems as though it might save the film as whole.

Although it is unlikely that the Teenie Harris Archive has any nitrate film in it, (I think that the conservators who made the initial description of the collection would have mentioned the presence of nitrate, but maybe not…) based on the years that the film is belived to have been shot, it is certainly not impossible.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get my hands on the film itself yet, I have not been able to get my hands on the film itself. However, this week my supervisor and I are going to take a look at the material and I am going to attempt to determine exactly what types of film are in there. Also, I will be going over the survey we received in class. So far, so good.