Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/06
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>All this talk of Kodachrome and E-6 films has made me start thinking of what
>is to become of the images of "our times".
>
This is a question that my wife and I have pondered at length. We shoot our
transparencies on Kodachrome unless we know they are for short term use or
we are in a hurry. Its also part of why I like to shoot black and white
often.
> We
>all know how easy it is to alter an image in photoshop, so who is going to
>safe guard the images of world shaping events for our future generations?
>Would Eddie Adams' Pulitzer winning image from Veitnam be safe from
>manipulation, or would it, in this day and age of politically correct, be
>manupliated to show some kinder event?
This is a really scary probability. To make it even easier to revise
history is a sobering thought. The fact that this already happening in
wildlife photography appalls me as a biology teacher. The use of digital
imaging in news reportage easily negates the phrase "pictures don't lie"
(which has never be strictly true) because there with be no verifiable
"original" picture to consult.
>
>Furthermore almost everything shot in color before the advent of color neg
>was shot on E-6 and from Fred's, Donal's and others posts I assume we can
>just rule
>all of this stuff as garbage in the next 10-30 years. This really hits home
>to me as the type of stuff I currently shoot is the kind of thing future
>generations will look back to see how things used to be. I shoot mostly
>travel/development photos of small towns and cities. How often do you see a
>photo from 1900 showing what a town used to look like. Now that everything
>is on E-6 I guess in 2097 it will be "Well we had these great photos showing
>our city in 1997, but they are now just clear pieces of plastic!" And
>unfortuantly Kodachrome is not an alternative as the time factor comes into
>play.
I recently shot about 100 Kodachromes of "snapshots" for a friend. These
were for a her to show at her wedding. We discussed the archival properties
of her photos and she was surprised to learn that her color prints were
fading and would continue to do so. She was pleased that the Kodachromes
would have better fade resistance.
I think that, in general, the public is not aware of this problem.
Perhaps this will provide an opportunity to the heirs of those of us who
cling to Kodachrome and B & W and try to carefully process our images!
- ----
Ken Wilcox Carolyn's Personal Touch Portraits
LHSA, MEA, LAW preferred---> <wilcox@umcc.umich.edu>
<kwilcox@genesee.freenet.org>