October 2018
Good morning studio. First, the main power switches are turned on since the only piece of equipment that is always attached to the power supply is the refrigerator. The rest is switched off for safety reasons. The computer is started up, the coffee machine is switched on, and so is the music system. The wheat starch paste is dissolved in cold water in an enamel pot. Once it is fully dissolved, the paste is brought to a boil while being stirred constantly. This takes up to 20 minutes. It is then cooled down with water and can rest for a while. In the meantime, the e-mails are checked and answered.
Photography has always fascinated me, and even when I was at school I often used it, becoming a bit of a girl-scout and class photographer. Training to become a photographer wasn't for me, but instead I became a retoucher. On the first day at college, it became clear that I was the only one on the course. Towards the end of the first year, I was faced with the choice of ending my learning in a big laboratory or as a lithographer. After a year in the big laboratory, the professional association discontinued the curriculum, but I was allowed to finish my four-year course of study and finally graduated as Switzerland's last retoucher. In the final year of my studies, an ambrotype crossed our desk. My tutor and I sat at a large table, and we both realised that there was nothing we could do with this object as retouchers. I couldn't leave it alone, though. Something had to be done with this wonderful object somehow. And so I stumbled across the profession of photo restoration. After studies and countless internships in Vienna and Rochester, NY, I trained to become a photo restorer and I think myself extremely lucky to be able to be part of such a fantastic profession.
One of the challenges of the processing of photographs is the variety of materials that are used - from metal (daguerreotypes) and glass (negatives) to paper (prints) and many more. Often, professionals need to be consulted from very different fields to handle a particular object. Before a photograph is processed, documentation is created. The "before" state is documented with photographs, the object is measured and it is examined. Prints that need processing are dry-cleaned in almost all cases. Various methods, from brushes to sponges, are used for this. To bond torn photographs, for example, the paste we make in-house is used, and it keeps for about 3 days. To make the bonded tear more resilient, it is reinforced with Japanese paper which is available in various thicknesses. The Japanese paper is "cut" with water, keeping the fibres whole and creating fine transitions.
In the studio, objects are mounted - either for exhibitions or for a collector, for example, who loves carbon prints by Adolphe Braun. These prints are very prone to curling up when the climate changes, so they are mounted using a special method onto high-quality photo cardboard so that the Braun aficionado is able to look at his collection without damaging the objects.
Drying stages give me time to prepare expert reports, carry out stock analyses or make course preparations. Expert reports increasingly have to be written for insurance companies, especially for photographs from the modern era. Often, these have been cleaned incorrectly, suffering total damage in the worst-case scenario. Stock analyses of archives are important for the planning of the long-term archiving of photographic materials. Depending on its condition and size, the archive faces the problem of having to preserve thousands of photographs or negatives. Conservation suggestions and workflows are drafted in order to be able to process the volume involved. What's important in these situations is the cost-effectiveness of such an undertaking, taking account of conservation standards.
Courses are regularly held in the studio, be they on the conservation or identification of photographic materials or the production of historic photographic techniques. Over the years, our own collection of different techniques and of damages we have witnessed has grown continually. The collection is factored into all of our courses, giving the participants a direct and long-term understanding of photography.
Often, we work with institutions that come from outside the field of photography. We were able to develop a program with a software developer, for example, that automatically uploads metadata into the database after a small amount of preparation work. A damaged hologram once led to a physicist friend of mine and a small group of interested individuals meeting up in the studio for an evening of information about holograms involving a presentation and a demonstration.
But I'm digressing - everyday studio work can be like that sometimes. All of a sudden you'll get a call and you pack the "emergency supplies" for an object that has fallen but which simply cannot be missing from the private view the next day and which has to be displayed despite any damage. After intervention by a restorer, it too can resume its place in the exhibition. In the studio, however, things are pretty calm most of the time. Lots of steps need to be planned accurately and with care. Some photographs are treated with moisture or baths, and in these cases it's important that all of the materials are available so that the restoration process can be successful. We often work with specialist materials that are not available in conventional shops. In this instance, we make them in-house, or something is fashioned from something else, such as an old knitting needle made from bone that was ground to create a miniature spatula.
A classic treatment method involves dry cleaning and subsequent wet cleaning. In the case of glass negatives, these are first cleaned on both sides with a soft brush. The emulsion side is then cleaned with a mixture of solvents. Glass negatives are often retouched, and in many cases on both sides. During the wet treatment, it is important to always check carefully whether there are flecks of dirt or retouches. At the moment, we are treating various photographs that have suffered water damage. A climate chamber helps the crinkled photographs to relax, and then they are stretched out. The water caused stamp colours and pen ink to dissolve leaving traces behind on other photographs. Using various methods, these traces are reduced and - in ideal cases - removed entirely, depending on the ink and the photography technique involved.
The work in the photo restoration studio is extremely varied and always brings new challenges. The search for new solutions is always ongoing, and requires a professional network that can be accessed when required. So it's perfectly possible, just as you're shutting down the computer in the evening and disconnecting all of the electronic equipment, that you realise your day took a completely different direction to the one you'd expected. The next day will make it all right again.
Nadine Reding completed a 4-year apprenticeship as a photo retoucher and was the last of her kind in Switzerland. After a restoration internship, she studied restoration and conservation of graphics, documents and photography at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. During her studies she used every free minute to do an internship either in Vienna with a renowned photo restorer or in Rochester with Kodak in order to learn as much as possible from her practical experience. Since 2004 she has been running her own photo restoration studio fokore. At the same time she worked in various institutions.
Framing of an ambrotype for subsequent processing.
Daguerreotype before restoration
Daguerreotype after restoration
Removal of a damaged gelatine layer from the glass carrier
Left: Original wooden box packaging. Right: after processing and conservation of photographic materials.