What does the future bode for historians, collectors or anyone wishing to know about life in the 21st century?

“Photographic history is at a most fragile time,” said Mark Osterman, process historian, at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. “The physical artifact is gone; it’s now all 1s and 0s.”

That is not to say that digitally captivated photos cannot be archived into something more permanent.

“But, people don’t realize that if they don’t save their photos every two years or so, they’ll be gone in the future,” Osterman said. “Today you see everyone sharing photos by phone or through Facebook or some other social medium. You walk into a room today and ask ’who is shooting film,’ and you won’t see any hands. It’s all gone digital.”

The “divide” between film and digital will become wider in the future, Osterman said. He foresees a day when photographers will only have the choice between digital or going back to photographic processes used in the 1880s or earlier.

At present, photographers using the old single lens reflex cameras (de rigueur in the 1950s-1980s) can still purchase the silver gelatin, 35mm film. The popular Kodachrome color film by Kodak is still on the market. But, don’t expect either of these to be around in the future. That demand is no longer there. Kodak, Fuji Agfa and Ilford are starting to get the message.

There is no demand (i.e. money) in film.

“It takes a huge infrastructure to make this silver gelatin film that was popular in the past,” said Osterman, who with his wife France Scully Osterman, own and operate Scully and Osterman art photography studio in New York. “It’s not something that can be produced out of someone’s garage or a small manufacturing plant. It’s just too complicated for that.

“It’s a very interesting time for photography. Times are moving fast. Just this past Christmas we were looking for just a little point-and-shoot digital camera. They’re almost impossible to find now, at least in the $100-300 range, because everyone has gone to the digital phones for shooting and sending photos.”

So, what now? You either shoot digital or you dig back into the old processes that existed back before the 1880s – conjuring images of Matthew Brady processing large glass plates in the back of a horse-drawn wagon during the Civil War. Here we’re talking wet- and dry-plate collodion, albumen printing and daguerreotypes.

To better illustrate this phenomenon, Osterman points to the recent revival in vinyl records. “Now there is so much downloading of music to iPhones, iPads, i-whatever, that the old (compact disc) industry is beginning to flounder. They’re going the same way as film. But we’re seeing a resurgence of interest in vinyl. We’re going back to the old tech, and a lot of the real connoisseurs of music are finding the old tech is delivering a higher quality of sound.”

The same is true of photography, according to Osterman.

Digital photography, he said, has not achieved the same quality as even the best film now on the market. In time, he said, it may. But, ironically, most commercial films have been inferior to many of the older processes.

“Many of the old processes prior to the 20th century has a higher resolution,” Osterman reported. “The wet collodion and the tin types and, particularly, the daguerreotypes have many, many more times the resolution. And they last much longer. Prints fade over time, especially when exposed to sunlight. But, there are still tintypes and daguerreotype photographs that have held a sharp definition for 150 years – just look at some of the well preserved photos of the Civil War.”

The advantage of film has always been its relative ease and portability.

“The old methods were incredibly slow, laborious and can be dangerous,” he said.

However, there is – and has been – a resurgence of interest in going back to the photographic processes developed from the 1850s to the 1890s. The first to value the older technology were artists. They discovered that the photographic processes were aesthetically superior to modern film development. Also the old technology lent the appeal of individualistic – “handmade,” if you will – art.

“In 1970, there may have been maybe a dozen people really interested in this,” Osterman said. “There might have been a few more out there – there always are those out on the fringe experimenting. But as it grew, there became this artistic subculture – artists who wanted to make something with their hands – that were drawn to this kind of thing.”

The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film offered the first workshop demonstrating the “hands on” technology for creating photographs using 19th century knowledge.

“But, it didn’t really catch on as a movement until the early 1990s,” Osterman said. “In this art world, it started off as a small group of individuals who followed Civil War re-enactors and began making tin types for soldiers at the re-enactments. From there, it took a much bigger leap into the art world. There is a feeling of creativity in making light sensitive material morph into reality. That holds a very strong attraction to many of these people.”

The old processes also give the artist a greater element of “control” in the creative process.

“The artifact is there,” Osterman explained. “The artist, by using more relaxed techniques, can create drips, fingerprints – an identity left by the creator. They can say, ’I made this photograph … and often you can see individual characteristics come through in an artist’s body of work.”

Not only is the George Eastman House buzzing with activity teaching the old photographic processes, but the Ostermans are traveling throughout the world teaching these old techniques. They have given workshops in Japan, Europe and Mexico on 19th century photographic processing. They are involved in workshops in England this year.

As leaders in exhibiting and publishing their work as artists, the Ostermans have eagerly shared their knowledge through lectures, publications, workshops and tutorials. Photograph conservators, collectors, museum curators and the most advanced collodion photographers often turn to the Ostermans for answers to collodion-related questions.

At the George Eastman House, the Ostermans have tapped the extensive resources of the museum, including studying period publications, inspection of vintage masterworks and equipment from the archives.

“Although these processes remain laborious, they’re certainly time tested,” Osterman claimed. “You can achieve a much higher resolution than the actual plate in the camera.”

The processes of the earlier age of photography are often technically challenging – particularly for the novice – and achieving the epitome of the work of the 19th century artist is difficult, Osterman said. But, at least, you can be assured that you have a “handmade” photograph that will last hundreds of years.

Contact: (585) 271-3361

www.eastmanhouse.org

Eric C. Rodenberg