Restoration and Digitization
The discovery of thousands of glass negatives in the Langhans house initiated an extensive process of restoration and digitization, preserving a unique photographic heritage. Today, the archive provides access to portraits of prominent figures from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and serves as a valuable resource for historical research.
Restoration
The negatives discovered during the reconstruction of the Langhans building in 1998 and 2000 were in very poor technical condition. It was necessary to clean and conserve them, and in many cases, to restore them—despite the lack of experience with such work in the Czech Republic at that time. Initial identification was conducted by photographer Ivan Lutterer, who gradually acquired the skills and expertise of a restorer. His sudden death in 2001 nearly halted the work. Nevertheless, Ivan Lutterer managed to set the foundational direction for the restoration of over nine thousand negatives.
The restoration of the most severely damaged glass negatives (including those with detached emulsion) was undertaken in 2008 by Martina Fornůsková, who had unique experience in restoring glass negatives abroad. Later, Tereza Cíglerová, along with Iva Lukešová and Iva Poláková, continued cleaning the negatives, devised a storage system, and meticulously documented individual damages. The entire archive was professionally digitized by photographer Dušan Šimánek.
Digitization
Explaining and justifying the decision to digitize glass negatives at 1600 DPI requires revisiting 1998 to summarize the basic facts about the Langhans archive and the phases of its preservation. Over the years, all processes have converged toward the concept of a second, professional digitization, resulting in the creation of an independent digital archive based on the existing physical archive of glass negatives. The first round of digitization, conducted at 300 DPI, was carried out by Rostislav Konopa in 2001 and 2002.
From 2012 to 2023, an extensive digitization process at 1600 DPI was completed by photographer and scanner specialist Dušan Šimánek.
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