Photographic Conservation at Max Communications
Our photographic conservation service offers:
- Initial assessments of material and creation of bespoke condition reports and treatment plans.
- Advice on storage and planning for further long term preservation .
- Surface cleaning.
- Safe storage and access solutions for items such as broken glass plate negatives.
- Rehousing into new archival quality storage solutions.
- Creation of bespoke folders and boxes for storage.
All photographs deteriorate over time and using the correct photographic conservation techniques is therefore essential. The deterioration will accelerate if the photographs are not stored in the correct conditions. These conditions will vary depending on the original format e.g. print, glass-plate or film.
Photographic conservation focuses on the conservation of a wide variety of photographic materials including positive prints and negatives on a range of bases from paper, glass, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, to polyester.
As always, the goal is to preserve and stabilise as much of the original materials as possible based around the core professional ethics of minimal intervention and reversibility/re-treatability.
Conservation treatment can in many cases improve image quality, but the main aim is to ensure the physical stability and accessibility to the item.
Successful long term conservation of photographs depends on the storage environment and we provide a comprehensive storage environment assessment as well as advice and solutions.
Collections on which we have undertaken full preservation assessments for photographic conservation purposes include:
- News International
- Cartier
- Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineer Corp.
Max provide a full range of conservation and storage services. For details please visit our conservation and storage page. We also offer comprehensive digitisation, digital preservation, archive management and digitisation project management solutions.