ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting 2016
September 21-24, 2016, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Meeting theme: Uniques & Multiples
Call for Papers
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Photographic Materials Working Group of ICOM-CC are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the 2016 Photographic Materials Working Group Interim Meeting, scheduled for 21-24 September 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This meeting is an important gathering of photograph conservators and historians from all over the world. Past meetings have been held in Wellington, Athens, Rochester, and Paris, among other locations. The 2016 meeting will be comprised of two days of workshops and tours (21-22 September, optional) followed by two days of lectures and a poster display (23-24 September).
Lecture Day 1 will be dedicated to the meeting theme: Uniques & Multiples.
The joint contemplation of the unique and the multiple touches upon the very essence of photography, from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. While seemingly contradictory, the two concepts are actually inextricably linked and can be explored on many levels. Nicéphore Niépce, for example, was concerned with the reproduction of works of art in order to multiply and disseminate images of them, and yet in fact very few photographic artefacts form his legacy. Daguerre’s process produced a unique photographic object, but many thousands of daguerreotypes can be found in collections today. Early pioneers duplicated daguerreotypes by etching and printing from them or by creating galvanic copies; these techniques then became obsolete within years of their invention.
In our digital era of mass photography, unique analogue processes such as ambrotypes and tintypes are flourishing. Most recently, a 20th century photographic unique, the instant print, teetered on the brink of obsolescence as a result of the takeover of digital photography, but it has been revived and is currently thriving. Many questions remain unanswered on the materials and techniques, but also on the conservation and exhibition of unique photographs, such as daguerreotypes, photogenic drawings, colour screen plates, and contemporary prints with applied media; and serial objects, such as numbered editions of colour photographs and inkjet prints, may pose ethical and practical questions of reprinting and replacement. These and other technically and temporally recurrent variations of the unique and the multiple will be studied in breadth and depth on the first day of the conference.
Lecture Day 2: Free conservation topics
All original submissions covering topics relevant to the analysis, treatment, study and care of photographic materials will be considered.
Key dates to remember:
January 15, 2016 Submission deadline for abstracts for talks and posters
March 1, 2016 Notification of speakers and authors
March 15, 2015 Announcement of programme, Registration opens
Sept. 21-22, 2016 Workshops and tours
Sept. 23-24, 2016 Interim meeting
Conference Websites
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/icom-cc.pmwg
http://www.icom-cc.org/52/event/?id=260
Greg Hill, Coordinator ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group
Martin Jürgens, Conservator of Photographs, Rijksmuseum
Email: ICOM-CC.PMWG.2016@rijksmuseum.nl
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