Long Exposures
Series of photo crops
2023
Between 2018 and 2023, I was in charge of coordinating a significant digitisation endeavour focused on early 20th-century Estonian photography on behalf of the National Archives of Estonia. This project entailed the digitisation of 167,000 photo negatives, primarily glass plates sourced from 24 different Estonian memory institutions. One of my responsibilities was the meticulous quality control of the digitised images and this meant that I had to closely inspect all of the 167,000 images. Immersed in these century-old photographs, I gained a profound insight into Estonian life at the turn of the 20th century, fostering a newfound appreciation for the photographic discourse of an era when this medium was primarily in the hands of professionals and semi-professionals.
Silver gelatin-coated dry plate negatives, ranging from 6x9 cm to large format 30x40 cm, constituted a pivotal aspect of early 20th-century photography. Serving as a photographer's instrument for exposure, retouching, and enlarging images onto paper, the negative typically remained in the possession of the photographer. During the digitisation process, we illuminated these intricate procedures, resulting in enlarged negatives as artefacts reflective of their state at the time of digitisation. Consequently, alongside the images, the technical nuances of early 20th-century photography became accessible for scholarly examination. Employing standardised high-resolution photography, we encapsulated the glass plates within time capsules of archival file formats, complete with descriptions accessible via participating institution databases. As a result, a substantial portion of early Estonian photography is now digitised and readily available for research purposes.
Throughout the quality control phase of digitisation, I analysed images at around 400% magnification to verify focus. What became obvious for me was that even though these negatives were captured a century ago, the exposures did not end with photographic capture. These images are not still. The surface of these images exposes the duration of time—marked by fingerprints, physical and chemical damage accrued over their birth and lifespan during the tumultuous 20th century. Much like the glass screen you may be interacting with now, these images communicate through their materiality. These abstract elements often dominate the photographs and divert attention from their content. This secondary exposure invites contemplation on the passage of time, lives lived, and connects the photographs to the environments in which they were stored.
By zooming into these photos I started to see new kinds of images that did not exist before. I was able to see damages, fingerprints and retouching techniques up close which made the image content fade into the background. These multi–layered abstractions combined to one image have created something that could not have existed when these negatives were first exposed. To see them as artefacts, one must possess knowledge of historical photographic processes, which is not common nowadays. If one sees these images on databases and does not have this knowledge, then the communication is lost and then these images might appear digitally filtered or edited. That's why the databases need translations and educational resources to contextualise these processes for future generations. This series of photo crops takes image content and artefacts out of their original context. It focuses on the material layers that have been added to or formed on the negatives following the initial exposures. This focus reflects the archivist's contemplation on how these images acquire new meanings following digitisation.
More info about the project
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