Re: Polaroid Article, 3/11/02

[Arthur Entlich <artistic-1@xxxxxxx>]

This is just one of many priceless collections of images that may be 
compromised.  Corbis, owned by Bill Gates, has bought out massive 
archives of images, and negatives, including the AP collection, Magna, 
and others.  These images are slowly disintegrating, but much of the 
digital archiving has been abandoned due to cost, and while the 
collections are now sitting underground in limestone caves to slow down 
the chemical breakdown of the film, many will likely never see the light 
of day again.

One of the problems, of course, is that, unlike older art forms like 
painting, the collection of work one photographer alone can produce in a 
lifetime is massive.  And many film images may never even be printed. 
Archives are costly to maintain, and the interest in photography as a 
viewing art form has still not reached the prestige of paintings or 
sculpture, and in spite of more interest by collectors (as shown by 
escalating value of older photographic prints), photography is still 
seen as a "mechanical" process where many copies can exist.  Further 
still, some feel that photographic images can be "well represented" via 
mass printing processes, as in books and magazines, so the "original" 
prints don't have the same draw as do original paintings which are 
usually large, and have qualities not fully visible in a book rendition.

Considering the amount of money the Getty family has amassed in recent 
times from photographic images, it would be a nice turn if they would 
buy and house the Polaroid collection intact.

Art


rafeb@adelphia.net wrote:

> Interesting article in todays' Globe.  (3/11/02) 
> You can read it online at:
> 
> <http://www.boston.com/globe/living/>
> 
> The more direct link is:
> 
> <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/069/living/After_images+.shtml>
> 
> It's about the fate of Polaroid's large collection of 
> classical photos (eg., many by Ansel Adams) in 
> light of the bankrupcy situation.
> 
> There's also a link to several images in that 
> collection.  I hadn't realized the close connection 
> between Ansel Adams and Polaroid before 
> reading the article.
> 
> 
> rafe b.
> 


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