This is a manual for cultural institutions/museums workers, collectors and amateurs, explaining different photographic processes, their history, differences, characteristics, and how to preserve images, made with them.

This text describes the history, chemical and technical processes of old photography printing techniques. It also includes guidelines on how to differentiate photographs of one type from photographs of the other type (via such visual characteristics as colour, saturation/contrast, scratches on the surface, dark spots, etc.) In relation to painting working with photographical references (e.g. Richter), these characteristics could add the realness to paintings, the other layer or a surface. Which painting techniques could relate to photographical scratches and chemical dots?

Generally, this document is connected to questions of preservation of cultural memory/history in the form of photographs. Why are some old photographs ending up in museums, and some can be bought at the flea market or online for quite a low price (even one from the end of XIX century), is it connected to their condition/personalities depicted/style of the photographer/face and bod features of people depicted/something else? What are the reasons to buy someone's old photographs in general?

#photography #history #museum #archive #collection #ghost