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Re: Permanency of VDB (test)

Judy,

Let me reply to you question if I may. As you know I work as an
archivist and as such read the literature.

Fading and longevity seem to be two different things. Archivists
generally consider UV light as the single most important factor in
fading of photographic prints. Whereever photo are exhibited, only
low wattage incandescent lamps are used. Halogen and flourescent
lamps are a nono. UV plastic filters are used as well.

As I recall exposure times for sunlight in a print frame with "window"
glass in it are somewhere around 1/10 th that of the times I have
to use with my bank of 8 BL flourescent bulbs at 1 inch away. The
sun is a very stong UV source as you know.

I attended a workshop by John Riley on the care and preservation
of 19th century images for archivists. He spoke of longevity
seperatly from fading which he attributed to UV light. Longevity,
it seems has to do with the deterioration of the image due to
chemical reactions between those comound which make up the image
and chemical compounds in the substrate and in the air. According
to him, relative humidity was the most important factor since
the more water present, the more active were the chemical reactions
that cause deterioration of the image. Actually archivists recommend
relative humidities of 40% and less for all materials, not just photographic 
materials. Next comes heat. But heat is nowhere near as
important as humidity.

The bottom line was that best storage was very dry, frozen and in
the dark.

I have an interesting story about sepia toned silver prints.
When we first constructed our Women's History Museum in an ols school
bus. I made some lifesize silver prints of famous women which I
sepia toned and glued to foam core board and cut out the outline.
I put these "heads" in the bus windows. This was in 1990. In 1995,
I removed these "heads", not because they had faded, but because
water leaking around the windows caused the foam core to fall apart.
When the "heads" were installed we also put up dark brown corduroy
drapes in the back windows. The way the bus is parked, the windows with 
sunlight on them are the side windows where the "heads" were.
The back windows got little direct sunlight and yet the dark brown
cloth was faded to a light brown.

If I make any new "heads," maybe I should use VDB   ;-)

Bob Schramm


>From: Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>
>Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>Subject: Re: Permanency of VDB (test)
>Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 16:45:03 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
>
>On Wed, 19 Jul 2000, Andre Fuhrmann wrote:
>
> > Like many others I have been wondering about the permanency of VDB
> > prints.  So I did a little test.  I partly covered a reject print
> > with black paper and stuck it to my window, facing the sun for a
> > couple of hours each day (well, on sunny days).  That was in December
> > last year.  Today (after more than 7 months) the window cleaners
> > dropped into my office and so I thought it may be time to have a
>
>
>Andre, he's what I wonder about and I wonder if you or anyone else can
>say:  is the sunlight fading an adequate test of archivality?  It's true
>that this print in 7 months got more *light* than under normal conditions
>a print would get in quite a few years.  But is *light* the only or even
>the major factor in fading a photograph? I recall Mike Ware's warning
>about the *smallness* of the silver particles... so what attacks them?
>Acid?  Air pollution? Dampness?.... my hunch would be other things than
>the light. And with the print taped onto the glass, the surface might
>actually have been well protected... even for 7 months which is as a blip
>in the life of a timeless work of art...
>
>Judy
>

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