Hello all,
Some time ago I mentioned that I am involved in planning and implementing
a family re-union, the first for more than 40 years, and in the 150th
anniversary of my great-grandfather and his bride coming to New Zealand.
http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/SFR/
I have several things to get in train before the next committee meeting in 2
weeks' time, and I have got back into arranging a photographer.
I have been working on the presumption that black and white prints would be
the best form of photographic record, when it comes to making a good
archival record. I based this assumption on the age of prints I have been
working with when making images for use on the web-site; some of these
images were well over 100 years old.
This morning, and it is still morning here, my assumption took a huge knock.
I had a conversation with a well-respected photographer in Christchurch city,
and he told me that the B&W papers available here now, mainly from Kodak,
have a guaranteed life of no more than 5 years. He said they have built-in
obsolescence. He added that to import archival papers would cost a fortune.
He also added that the oldest prints I have would be sulphide prints where
the silver-halide had been substituted with some form of sulphide.
Further, there is no commercial B&W lab available in Christchurch; I was
beginning to suspect this; what he told me may confirm it. He closed down
his B&W work about 4 years ago. The last B&W film I had developed, a
month ago, was processed in Wellington city.
I can see from the web-sites of major photo labs that medium format film
processing is also just a minor activity in this city now.
I obviously have a lot more to do and urgently. :-((
Brian
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