Restoration and conservation
The glass negatives are cleaned using soft brushes and then cotton swabs impregnated in suitable solvents. Great attention is paid to special coatings on the negatives (retouching and varnishes), which partly determine how the negatives are to be cleaned.
The broken negatives are placed in custom-made matte-paper mounts. Glass negatives with flaking emulsion are sandwiched between glass.
Once the negatives have been specially treated they are placed in paper envelopes and then archival boxes. The packaging materials have passed the tests and met the standards for the proper storage of photographic materials. The negatives are kept in a climate-controlled storage facility.
Cataloguing
The ‘Archibald’ database was custom-made to catalogue negatives. All the information about the condition and history of each negative (including its archiving, conservation, and digitization) is entered into this database.
Digitization
To obtain sufficient visual information from the original, we scan the negative at a resolution as high as 1600 DPI.
The team of specialists
Our collaborators and colleagues since 1998, when the glass negatives were discovered.
Ivan Lutterer (1954– 2001)
Photographer and restorer, the first to work on and identify the glass negatives, he also made contemporary prints from some of them, between 1998 and 2001.
Tereza Cíglerová
Conservator and art historian
Conceived and led the conservation work, 2012–13.
Barbora Dusek
Investigations and descriptions
Martina Fornůsková
Conservator
Rostislav Konopa
Teacher and scan operator (1999, 2000)
Iva Lukešová
Conservator
Iva Poláková
Expert assistant, since 2008
Robert Portel
Made contemporary prints from the original glass negatives.
Max Rohr
Computer programmer, publisher, and organist
Designed the Archibald archiving programme.
Pavel Scheufler
Photo/art historian, author of 'Jan Langhans’, Torst 2005
Iren Stehli
Photographer and consultant, since 1998
Dušan Šimánek
Freelance photographer and artist
In charge of digitization of the archive, since 2012
Foreign consultation:
Herman Maes
Archive consultant, Senior Conservator, Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam