PMG Winter Meeting:
The Photographic Materials Group (PMG) of the American Institute of Conservation is pleased to announce that the 2009 Winter Meeting will be held at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona on January 23-25. Papers will address aspects of the conservation of photographic materials from unique images to archives. Specific information regarding registration and local arrangements are posted on the PMG website.

Coatings on Photographs: This full color publication contains 25 chapters on the topic of coatings on photographs ranging from the nineteenth century to the contemporary color. Published in 2006 and edited by Constance McCabe. 384pp. $55 AIC member, $70 Non-member

ColorChecker® Patch Sets for Photographic Reference Plates 2008 are now available.

These patch sets are designed for use in the construction of the photographic reference plates described in A Photographic Reference Plate for Conservation Documentation by Dan Kushel, Jiuan-Jiuan Chen, and Luisa Casella. The sets contain precut X-Rite ColorChecker® patch material for the six-step grayscale and the six color primaries. Two different sets are available

Set No. 1 contains patches to make three small reference plates measuring: 2 cm x 16 cm; 1.4 cm x 12 cm; and 1 cm x 8 cm.

Set No. 2 contains patches to make a 3 cm x 44 cm or larger reference plate.

The design of these plates complies with recommended practices for photographic documentation described in the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Commentaries to the Guideline for Practices and with suggested procedures in the AIC Guide to Digital Documentation for Conservators.

This project was generously supported by the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at George Eastman House/ International Museum of Photography and Film, the Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State College, and the Photographic Materials Group of AIC.

Print Process Set: PMG has sold out of the Print Process Sets. However, they are currently being reprinted. Each set will consist of five different print processes made from the same 5 x 7 negative printed by Doug Munson of the Chicago Albumen Works. The sets include salted paper, albumen, cyanotype, gelatin printed-out, and gelatin developed-out prints. Sets will be sold for $250 each. This project was made possible through the efforts of Connie McCabe, Photograph Conservator, National Gallery of Art, and funding by the PMG.

PMG Research Project Funding:
PMG has awarded Dana Hemmenway funds to give a presentation at the ICOM - CC Photographic Materials Specialty Group, New Delhi, India. Her talk entitled, Treating the Second Anglo-Afghan War Album: Negotiations between Book and Photograph Conservation, will be published in the conference pre-prints.

The project covers the treatment of The Library of Congress’s Afghan War album which contains ninety-seven albumen prints from the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1879-80.) Photograph conservator, Dana Hemmenway, and book conservator, Yasmeen Khan, collaborated on the project in order to address the album and its photographs, in particular five badly damaged panoramas. The selected treatment strategy takes into account both the functionality of the album and the fragility of the photographs.

Past PMG Research Funding: The PMG awarded $1000 to Clara von Waldthausen to support her technical research on early glass plate albumen negatives. Clara presented some of the results of her study at the Rochester meeting in the presentation “The Great Exhibition of 1851: An Introduction to a Research Project and Preliminary Findings.” The PMG has an ongoing program to fund research, publications, or workshops, providing up to $2000 per year, with a limit of $1000 to any one individual or project.

Revised 11/08, read PMG member Tim Vitale's Brief History of Imaging Technology