Training in Photograph Conservation, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA), June 9 – 17, 2011

Calendar and Curriculum

CCAHA Instructors

Photograph Conservators:

Mary Schobert, Head of Paper Conservation

Barbara Lemmen, Senior Conservator of Photographs

Rachel Wetzel, Conservator of Photographs

Jessica Keister, Mellon Fellow

Photographic Documentation:

Michelle Dauberman, Manager of Digital Documentation

Jessica Silverman, Paper Conservator and Preservation Consultant

Housing and Packing: Anna Krain, Senior Conservation Assistant

Curriculum

Further develop the participants’ core treatment, preventive, analytical, connoisseurship, decision making and critical thinking skills, through the following activities:

Discussions and presentations

o Reinforce conservation terms, vocabulary, key points, and ideas

o Review topics with individual participants and as a group

o Have participants present their treated project photographs to the photograph conservators and other participants on the last day

o Encourage participants to record their observations and add to their dictionary of terms

Written documentation

o Examination of a project photograph and preparation of a treatment proposal, time estimate, and treatment record

 Participants will retain copies of all written documentation

Digital photographic documentation

o Working with our photographer, create before, during and after‐treatment digital documentation for the project photograph

 using incident, raking, ultraviolet, and/or specular lighting, as appropriate

o Working with a conservator, create photomicrographs using our stereomicroscope and digital camera

 Participants will retain copies of the digital documentation as digital files on CD and inkjet prints

Photograph conservation treatment skills

o Treat of a “project photograph” (19th and early 20th century) employing any or all of the following procedures, using the stereomicroscope, as needed.

 Surface cleaning and mold removal

 Consolidation

 Washing and stain reduction through light bleaching and/or other methods

 Mending

 Humidification and flattening

 Unmounting and mounting

 Aesthetic compensation – fills and inpainting

o Participants will retain their project photograph.

o Design and construct simple housing for storage and transport of the project photograph

 Housing

 Process identification o Examine photographic, photomechanical, and digital prints from CCAHA’s collection with a photograph conservator using the stereomicroscope and a variety of lighting conditions

 Evaluation o Record the participants’ progress using “Workshop Evaluation Forms.”

Outside Activities

These will be offered to the participants but not scheduled for them.

 PMA show “Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art” (admission $16; free with ICOM card)

 Film at the PMA “Hockney the Photographer” (tickets $8) 2:00 pm the 12th

 PMA Art After 5 (10th and 17th)

 Philly Photo Arts Center – show for 2nd Annual Contemporary Photography Competition

 Antique markets to purchase photographs for their study collections

Thursday June 9

Arrive at CCAHA and settle in Select TR Project and Begin Written Doc

Lunch

Complete Written Doc

BT Photo Doc

Friday June 10

Begin TR Project

Consolidation Review

Lunch

Photomicroscopy

TR Project

Weekend Monday Tuesday

Wednesday June 15

Housing TR Project

Lunch

Aesthetic compensation Review

TR Project

Thursday June 16

Housing ‐ continued

TR Project

Lunch

Complete TR Project and Housing

TR Project

Friday June 17

AT Photo Doc

Complete Written Doc

Lunch

Each presents TR Project to the group + Photo Conservators Pack TR Projects Clean up

Weekend June 18 + 19

Sunday –

NA and TS travel to GEH for 19th C. Negative Workshop

and

NL and EG fly home

June 11 + 12

Sunday ‐

PMA – Hockney Movie

June 13

DT Photo Doc

TR Project

Lunch TR Project

TR Project

June 14

Process ID Review

TR Project

Lunch

Review CCAHA in‐ house Projects TR Project

 

Calendar and Curriculum