Four thoughts about 'archival'.
1. This, from the front page of a book I've just checked out of the library: The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Interestingly, the book was also available from my library in an 'electronic edition'.
2. PBS rebroadcast last week, for the first time in nearly 40 years, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, a musical created for television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews. Cinderella was originally broadcast in color. Video recording had just been invented, but recording in color had not yet been developed. PBS showed a black-and-white kinescope (film recording) of the broadcast which was really quaint, considering that sophisticated digital colorization techniques do exist. I was thinking how far removed the PBS kine was from the original 1957 broadcast, while how amazing it was that so many of these 50s programs - captured with television cameras - were actually archived on film, the available storage technology.
3. Lauf's digital archive. Most of images of the 'lost buildings' appeared as images roughly 2" x 3" on my screen. I saved one of them and opened it in Photoshop. It had been stored at 200 pixels per inch. I enlarged it to screen size and saw the image as it appears below. Is this considered 'archival quality'? Images taken with my Brownie Hawkeye in 1955, mostly mounted in a black-paged album, are of higher quality. Digital storage is, of course, capable of higher resolution, but if it is not used, what is its value other than providing a sketch, a thumbnail, a reference to something more accurate?
4. Documentation of Ground Zero. "Within a few days of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the Museum of the City of New York engaged the noted photographer Joel Meyerowitz to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero and the immediate neighborhood. The 9/11 Photographic Archive will eventually number more than 5,000 images and will become part of the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York where it will be available for research, exhibition, and publication. Meyerowitz is working with a large format camera, which allows for the greatest detail and color reproduction." http://www.911exhibit.state.gov/about_exhibit.cfm
1. This, from the front page of a book I've just checked out of the library: The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Interestingly, the book was also available from my library in an 'electronic edition'.
2. PBS rebroadcast last week, for the first time in nearly 40 years, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, a musical created for television in 1957 starring Julie Andrews. Cinderella was originally broadcast in color. Video recording had just been invented, but recording in color had not yet been developed. PBS showed a black-and-white kinescope (film recording) of the broadcast which was really quaint, considering that sophisticated digital colorization techniques do exist. I was thinking how far removed the PBS kine was from the original 1957 broadcast, while how amazing it was that so many of these 50s programs - captured with television cameras - were actually archived on film, the available storage technology.
3. Lauf's digital archive. Most of images of the 'lost buildings' appeared as images roughly 2" x 3" on my screen. I saved one of them and opened it in Photoshop. It had been stored at 200 pixels per inch. I enlarged it to screen size and saw the image as it appears below. Is this considered 'archival quality'? Images taken with my Brownie Hawkeye in 1955, mostly mounted in a black-paged album, are of higher quality. Digital storage is, of course, capable of higher resolution, but if it is not used, what is its value other than providing a sketch, a thumbnail, a reference to something more accurate?
4. Documentation of Ground Zero. "Within a few days of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the Museum of the City of New York engaged the noted photographer Joel Meyerowitz to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero and the immediate neighborhood. The 9/11 Photographic Archive will eventually number more than 5,000 images and will become part of the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York where it will be available for research, exhibition, and publication. Meyerowitz is working with a large format camera, which allows for the greatest detail and color reproduction." http://www.911exhibit.state.gov/about_exhibit.cfm
