Wybrane problemy konserwacji prewencyjnej na przykładzie konserwacji archiwalnych materiałów fotograficznych

Abstrakt

SELECTED PROBLEMS OF PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION DEMONSTRATED ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE CONSERVATION OF ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS

Preventive conservation is one of the most important stages of the conservation and restoration of works of art. Preventive measures undertaken in accordance with the idea that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ were introduced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and following the development of conservation thought became recognized as a fundamental element of heritage preservation. Such measures include actions that prevent the destruction of historical objects by ensuring their proper storage and use. One of the methods of preventive conservation which enables us to protect the original historical substance while making it accessible to a wide range of audiences is digitalization. The specicity and complexity of preventive conservation and the nowadays widely popular digitalization are perfectly demonstrated in the issues connected with the protection of archival photographic materials. The successful performance of the process of digitalization depends on the correct delineation of its goals, the level of awareness of conservation issues represented by its executors, and the final processing of metadata. Digitalization is a process inextricably connected with many necessary preparatory actions, such as the preliminary recognition of an object, or even its conservation. However, often for financial reasons, and due to the large number of items in the collections, methods of digitalization are not adapted to specic objects, and sometimes conservator’s supervision is not even provided. Despite the numerous training courses focusing on digitalization, instances of damaging works of art for the sake of digitalizing them still happen. Such incidents result from ignorance of techniques and technologies necessary for the handling of archival photographic materials, and the lack of expertise in the eld of conservation doctrine. Recommendations on preventive conservation of photographs presented in this paper should aid those who provide care to collections of archival photographic materials. Appropriate adaptation of storage rooms, limiting light exposure, or lowering the temperature may, or even must save or prolong the life of many works of art.