Lauren Gaylord joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2012 and currently serves as a digital and research archivist. She leads boutique digitization projects for the archive, acting as the primary cataloger and camera operator for all imaging requests. In addition to her digitization duties, Lauren is deeply involved in collecting and organizing digital and physical materials for reuse by the studio. She regularly conducts research for internal and external requests about Pixar’s history, culture, and productions and has collaborated on books, exhibitions, documentaries, and theme park attractions, hotels, and cruise ships.

Lauren received her BA in History from Westmont College before earning her Master of Science in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on archives management. While completing her degrees, she interned at various cultural heritage institutions and corporations, including Whole Foods Market, the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Los Angeles Public Library.

Archives in the Spotlight: Supporting Documentaries Through Research, Digitization, and More

In 2021 and 2022, the Pixar Living Archives participated in two in-depth documentary projects: Beyond Infinity (Disney+) and A Visit to the Pixar Living Archive (Criterion Collection). These projects required a range of support from the Archives team, including digitized artwork, research services, location shooting, and even archivists as on-camera talent. Lauren Gaylord will discuss how her team approached these two projects and collaborated with the filmmakers from beginning to end. She will also share lessons learned along the way and tips on how other cultural heritage institutions might leverage past and future digitization to support similar storytelling projects.

Don Ross (he/him) is the Senior Photographer at SFMOMA where he has been honing his skills in cultural heritage photography for nearly two decades. Managing a team of fellow photographers and a digital tech, Don oversees a studio responsible for making accurate captures of paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and installation views of exhibitions. The team also produces images of compelling museum events, and staff and artist portraits. These images all serve the museum’s wide-ranging and exciting goals to reach our audiences in print and digital publications, as well as for the institution’s archives.

“Cool / Cold” Storage & Digitizing Color Photography at SFMOMA

Over the past twenty years, the photography collection of SFMOMA has doubled in size and the number of chromogenic photographs and digital prints acquired has been consistently increasing. According to one Conservation fellow, SFMOMA’s photography curators in the late 1970’s and 1980’s were a small and pointed group who collected contemporary photography by artists using (and sometimes experimenting with) unknown processes at the time. A rarity to collect such work at the time on the West Coast, these curators felt it was extremely important to collect contemporary photography at the time that was pushing the boundaries in alt processes.

 Some of these color processes were found later to be chemically unstable, making the color somewhat fugitive. Extensive research studies conducted by the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) in Rochester, and Wilhelm Research Inc provide scientific evidence that low-temperature environmental conditions play an important role in the long-term preservation of color photographs. This also offers a way to greatly extend their lifespan. According to the IPI storage recommendation for long-term preservation of photographic materials, almost all photographic works of the collection should be stored in cold storage. With SFMOMA’s expansion in 2016, a “Cool / Cold” storage environment of roughly 1500 square feet was created specifically to house part of the museum’s collection of 1970’s and 1980’s early color photography. For obvious space limitations, priority was given to the most fragile dye-based photographic processes: chromogenic prints and early dye-based inkjet prints.

For those of us who aren’t conservators: what makes color photographs so fragile, concerning, and candidates for cold storage? Most color photographs deteriorate even if preserved at standard museum environmental conditions, and in dark storage. The image material of the vast majority of color photographs consists of dyes rather than pigments. Typically, a dye is a molecule that absorbs portions of the visible spectrum and causes the appearance of the color. The color that we perceive depends on that specific molecular structure of the dye. If the structure changes, the color will change in appearance to our eyes. Change can be induced by light energy when on display or heat energy (temperature), moisture and air pollutants when in dark storage. Light and dark fading have distinct chemical mechanisms and sometimes different effects on the image. Dark fading has the greatest effect on the survival of the color photographs, as prints spend most of their life in storage.

 Aligned with the Conservation and Registration Departments, the Imaging Studio was charged with imaging the works before they were to be house into “Cool / Cold” storage in support of preserving the prints while ensuring a level of access to the works through visual documentation. Over the course of years of this large-scale imaging project, there have been interesting challenges regarding treatment of the objects, and each objects’ individual states of being for access by the Imaging Studio. For example, some photographs are housed in solander boxes (easy to address) while other photographs are framed and glazed (not so easy to address), in some cases thus requiring unframing before imaging. Thanks to Digital Transition’s copy-stand set-up two+ years ago, the image quality that is produced with our Phase One camera allows for extreme close–looking and for deep discoveries of works of art in our digital asset management system: image files delivered to researchers, and made available on our website www.sfmoma.org

 The “Cool / Cold” imaging project also directly connects with SFMOMA’s charge to exhibit or otherwise make accessible works by historically underrepresented artists. The images of color photographs made by the Imaging Studio are also, importantly, contributing to increased discovery, awareness, and knowledge of works by artists from many different backgrounds. In fact, during our presentation we will touch on some of the early color works by Cindy Sherman, Janet Delaney, April Dawn Alison, Jonathan Calm, as well as contemporary artists using alternative processes such as Meghann Rippenhoff.

 Come hear the Photographers explain their process of this mass “Cool / Cold” digitization project, and explore with the group new philosophies around balancing preservation needs alongside making the photographs as accessible as possible — all towards knowing that the photographs that are in our care have a life to be viewed by our audiences. 

Tenari Tuatagaloa (he/him) is a Photographer and Imaging Specialist for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Starting in 2022, he has been responsible for collection imaging for both 2D and 3D objects. In addition, he helps to create installation images of each exhibition. His current role has further developed his skills into the cultural heritage world, where he brings experience in photography, video production, and retouching skills.

“Cool / Cold” Storage & Digitizing Color Photography at SFMOMA

Over the past twenty years, the photography collection of SFMOMA has doubled in size and the number of chromogenic photographs and digital prints acquired has been consistently increasing. According to one Conservation fellow, SFMOMA’s photography curators in the late 1970’s and 1980’s were a small and pointed group who collected contemporary photography by artists using (and sometimes experimenting with) unknown processes at the time. A rarity to collect such work at the time on the West Coast, these curators felt it was extremely important to collect contemporary photography at the time that was pushing the boundaries in alt processes.

 Some of these color processes were found later to be chemically unstable, making the color somewhat fugitive. Extensive research studies conducted by the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) in Rochester, and Wilhelm Research Inc provide scientific evidence that low-temperature environmental conditions play an important role in the long-term preservation of color photographs. This also offers a way to greatly extend their lifespan. According to the IPI storage recommendation for long-term preservation of photographic materials, almost all photographic works of the collection should be stored in cold storage. With SFMOMA’s expansion in 2016, a “Cool / Cold” storage environment of roughly 1500 square feet was created specifically to house part of the museum’s collection of 1970’s and 1980’s early color photography. For obvious space limitations, priority was given to the most fragile dye-based photographic processes: chromogenic prints and early dye-based inkjet prints.

For those of us who aren’t conservators: what makes color photographs so fragile, concerning, and candidates for cold storage? Most color photographs deteriorate even if preserved at standard museum environmental conditions, and in dark storage. The image material of the vast majority of color photographs consists of dyes rather than pigments. Typically, a dye is a molecule that absorbs portions of the visible spectrum and causes the appearance of the color. The color that we perceive depends on that specific molecular structure of the dye. If the structure changes, the color will change in appearance to our eyes. Change can be induced by light energy when on display or heat energy (temperature), moisture and air pollutants when in dark storage. Light and dark fading have distinct chemical mechanisms and sometimes different effects on the image. Dark fading has the greatest effect on the survival of the color photographs, as prints spend most of their life in storage.

 Aligned with the Conservation and Registration Departments, the Imaging Studio was charged with imaging the works before they were to be house into “Cool / Cold” storage in support of preserving the prints while ensuring a level of access to the works through visual documentation. Over the course of years of this large-scale imaging project, there have been interesting challenges regarding treatment of the objects, and each objects’ individual states of being for access by the Imaging Studio. For example, some photographs are housed in solander boxes (easy to address) while other photographs are framed and glazed (not so easy to address), in some cases thus requiring unframing before imaging. Thanks to Digital Transition’s copy-stand set-up two+ years ago, the image quality that is produced with our Phase One camera allows for extreme close–looking and for deep discoveries of works of art in our digital asset management system: image files delivered to researchers, and made available on our website www.sfmoma.org

 The “Cool / Cold” imaging project also directly connects with SFMOMA’s charge to exhibit or otherwise make accessible works by historically underrepresented artists. The images of color photographs made by the Imaging Studio are also, importantly, contributing to increased discovery, awareness, and knowledge of works by artists from many different backgrounds. In fact, during our presentation we will touch on some of the early color works by Cindy Sherman, Janet Delaney, April Dawn Alison, Jonathan Calm, as well as contemporary artists using alternative processes such as Meghann Rippenhoff.

 Come hear the Photographers explain their process of this mass “Cool / Cold” digitization project, and explore with the group new philosophies around balancing preservation needs alongside making the photographs as accessible as possible — all towards knowing that the photographs that are in our care have a life to be viewed by our audiences. 

Chrissy Huhn

Chrissy Huhn is the head of Imaging Services at the University of California, Berkeley, Library. Library Imaging Services is responsible for the digitization across all 23 libraries on campus. At the height of the pandemic, Library Imaging Services produced roughly 3 million images, including providing essential course texts to students while they attended classes remotely. Previously she has worked in the digitization lab at the National Archives Civilian Personnel Record Center in St. Louis, the National Archives in College Park where she was a part of the Iraqi Jewish Archive digitization project, and at Stanford Library as a part of the Digital Production Group. Chrissy holds a bachelor of fine arts in photography from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and a master of arts in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. Chrissy pursues her passion as a fine art landscape photographer. Her work has been published in pamplemousse Magazine, Cyanotype Toning: Using Botanicals to Tone Blueprints Naturally, and exhibited nationally. Chrissy also teaches darkroom photography classes and workshops in Berkeley, CA.

The Nitty-gritty and Not-so-pretty: Imaging Decisions in Cultural Heritage Digitization

The way we approach photography is both instinctual and based upon personal and professional experiences. How do you determine the best way to digitally represent an object? Sometimes we make methodical decisions based on previous work, but other times we encounter uncharted territory requiring creative problem-solving. While project-planning addresses imaging choices at the highest level, we still often need to make decisions for ourselves and our staff in the moment when an object is at the copy stand. Should I image these blank pages? Which direction is “up?” Can I unfold this half-glued note? Each with over a decade of cultural heritage imaging experience, Astrid and Chrissy will describe their similar and different ways of approaching digitization. They hope that a conceptual take-away from this talk will be a deeper consideration for how our imaging choices, large and small, impact digital objects, and that a practical take-away will be the inspiration to create a reference for yourself and your staff so that even spontaneous choices can become thoughtful guidelines for future imaging work.

Astrid J. Smith

Astrid J. Smith is Rare Book and Special Collections Digitization Specialist and a Production Coordinator with Stanford Libraries. She has been providing cultural heritage imaging services in that role for over a decade, overseeing or personally imaging rare and fragile materials such as medieval codices and wax-sealed charters, rare musical manuscripts, and collections of fine press books. She has an AA in humanities (Foothill College), BA in art with an emphasis in mixed media painting and book arts (San Francisco State University), and an MA in liberal arts (Stanford University). Astrid is working on a forthcoming book, Transmediation and the Archive: Decoding Objects in the Digital Age (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2023), and has chapters in Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age (London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) and Debates in the Digital Humanities (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023.) She approaches both her personal creative art and her digitization work with a combination of intensity, curiosity, and delight.

The Nitty-gritty and Not-so-pretty: Imaging Decisions in Cultural Heritage Digitization

The way we approach photography is both instinctual and based upon personal and professional experiences. How do you determine the best way to digitally represent an object? Sometimes we make methodical decisions based on previous work, but other times we encounter uncharted territory requiring creative problem-solving. While project-planning addresses imaging choices at the highest level, we still often need to make decisions for ourselves and our staff in the moment when an object is at the copy stand. Should I image these blank pages? Which direction is “up?” Can I unfold this half-glued note? Each with over a decade of cultural heritage imaging experience, Astrid and Chrissy will describe their similar and different ways of approaching digitization. They hope that a conceptual take-away from this talk will be a deeper consideration for how our imaging choices, large and small, impact digital objects, and that a practical take-away will be the inspiration to create a reference for yourself and your staff so that even spontaneous choices can become thoughtful guidelines for future imaging work.