Black and White negative collection

A negative suffering the effects of time. The solution is to make digital copy and cold store the original negative. Photo: Robert D (Bob) Reeves

The Multimedia unit has an extensive collection of black and white negatives totalling between 78,000 and 90,000 images, a collection that was started by Phil Law in 1948 at the same time as the colour image collection.

In the early years of the collection, much of the recording of the fieldwork and station building was recorded on black and white film, the colour rolls being kept for the more general views.

After the 1970s black and white fell out of favour and colour predominated in all areas of photographic work, however the historic record held in the Multimedia negative collection cannot be underestimated. Heard Island and Macquarie Island naturally predominate in the early part of the collection, however the establishment of Mawson 1954 and all other key events of the Law years are covered.

All negative size formats are used in the collection with 35 mm predominating towards the 1960s and 70s material, however 35 mm format film in cartridges was introduced in 1934, and Multimedia has negatives taken as early as 1950 on 35 mm stock.

Historically the first commercial photographic processes did not produce a negative. The daguerreotype introduced in 1839, was a direct process and produced one unique non-reproducible image. The negative process arrived in 1840 from the efforts of the Englishman William Fox Talbot, allowing for multiple prints to be made from the negative, however the daguerreotype remained very popular to around 1865, particularly for portrait work, where they could be hand tinted to give very realistic and natural looking colour.

The multimedia negatives are, in the main, polyester celluloid (ie plastic) first used by George Eastman of Kodak in 1887. Eastman also invented roll film in 1889. The emulsion on the celluloid is gelatin containing light sensitive silver salts. This form of emulsion was first used in 1871 on glass, and led to the development of the dry plate and shorter exposure times.

The gelatin emulsion is sensitive over long term storage to major fluctuations in temperature, thus needs to be stored in controlled environments.

Graeme Broxam from IP Australia writes:

"Gelatin" films are actually based on cellulose acetate (an early "plastic") film, which is made by reacting cellulose with acetic acid to form a polymer that is soluble in acetone, which is then evaporated off to form the film.

Unfortunately given time and suitable conditions (light, heat and moisture, maybe catalytic effects from pollutants including the silver compounds on the film, etc) water reacts with acetate groups on the polymer that then split off to form acetic acid ("vinegar") and a brittle cellulose base.

This is why old film can fall apart. The acetic acid will of course also react with the silver compounds and dissolve them (silver acetate is a soluble salt).

However despite the problems of old film, a program of scanning a selection of the Multimedia black and white collection will ensure that images will be available for use in the years to come.

Further information on early photography in Antarctica: Mawson's fatal journey: A splendid march