Your precious image captures are only as safe as the data that describes them. Here’s how to come up with a plan for ensuring their longevity.
written by: Mark Rochkind, Uwe & Bettina SteinmuellerThere is an irony about digital photos: they can last forever without degrading (even get better through improved imaging software) and yet they are very volatile, many bits on storage media that can easily get lost or damaged. A backup is a copy of data that is sufficiently independent of the original so that destructive events can’t affect both at the same time. A backup doesn’t prevent destruction of data; it only allows you to recover the data once the destruction has occurred. A simple example of backup is copying files from a laptop to a CD (the act of Read more »
written by: Paul SergeantThe Hockey Hall of Fame first opened its doors in the summer of 1961. Its mandate is to collect, archive and exhibit the ongoing history of hockey. This history is comprised of trophies, memorabilia, equipment and pretty much any object that is related to the sport. Since its inception, the Hockey Hall of Fame has faced its fair share of obstacles in its attempt at preserving hockey’s history and keeping it accessible to the public. The most recent of these obstacles has come from the simple fact that collections only get bigger. With the exponential growth of the Internet as Read more »
written by: Nolan PreeceThroughout the history of art there have been artists who have struggled with chronic illness or addiction. From the Greeks to Van Gogh to Modigliani in more recent times, illness has played a part in the growth and stimulation of artists. Erik M. Lauritzen was one of those courageous artists. A photographer, Erik suffered from polycystic kidney disease his entire life. Erik was born in Illinois in 1953, but later moved to California with his family when his father took a position of Professor of Art at California State University, Northridge in 1960. Both of his parents, Martha and Fred, Read more »
written by: Al WeberWhen Carmel photographer Steve Crouch died in 1984, his work was headed for the dump. A telephone call from Huntington Witherill alerted me as to what was happening and I was able to persuade his son to let me have the whole archive. I didn’t have a clue as to what I’d do with it. Three years later I was able to talk the University of California, Santa Cruz into placing it in their Special Collections. That was the start. I found to my surprise that the majority of photographs from deceased photographers end up in the dump. Family and Read more »
