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Forthcoming Events

Conservation of Colour Slides

The Icon Photographic Materials Group and The National Archives are delighted to announce a lecture and two-day hands-on workshop on the conservation of colour slides with Katrin Pietsch and Lénia Oliveira Fernandes. The lecture and workshop will take place at the National Archives in London between 1 and 3 July 2020. 

Katrin Pietsch and Lénia Oliveira Fernandes worked on the restoration of over 42,000 colour slides by Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990). This project took place at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. Even during Van der Elsken’s lifetime his archive started showing signs of biological decay in the form of mould growth, which was particularly problematic for the preservation of his colour slides.To avoid further decay and resulting accessibility constraints, Katrin Pietsch developed a mass treatment method for these colour slides over a two-year period. After a successful fundraising campaign, the restoration project became the largest in the Netherlands involving photographic material. Lénia Fernandes joined in October 2016 to carry out conservation work on the slides. Treating so many originals gave her the opportunity to focus on gathering information about the material and technical aspects of this type of photograph.

The lecture will be in the evening of 1 July, and is open to the general public. Attendees will gain insight into: 

- Ed van der Elsken’s life and work
- Workflow development, project planning and fundraising methods
- Treatment research and execution
- Digitisation
- Preventive conservation and long-term cold storage

The workshop will be two full days on 2 and 3 July. It is aimed at conservation professionals who wish to develop skills in the preservation and treatment of colour slides, in a group of no more than fifteen participants. They will be further trained in:

- Visual identification and condition assessment specific to colour slides
- The mould cleaning method used in the Ed van der Elsken project

Workshop participants are encouraged to bring examples of photographic objects on plastic supports for advice and discussion.

About the instructors:

Katrin Pietsch is a lecturer in Photograph Conservation at the University of Amsterdam, and also works as a freelance photograph conservator. She obtained her degree on the conservation of photographs, films and data carriers at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft-Berlin. Lénia Oliveira Fernandes has been an assistant photograph conservator at the Nederlands Fotomuseum since October 2016. She has a Master’s degree in the conservation and restoration of paper and photographs from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. 

Given the anticipated demand for places, all workshop participants are required to pay for the two-day workshop in full by 1 May 2020 

The cost for the workshop and lecture is £480, or £395 for Icon members.

The cost for the lecture only is £20, or £15 for Icon members.

Visit our eventbrite page to book tickets.

If you have any questions or queries, please get in touch: phmg@icon.org.uk

 

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