President’s Day, Library Closed

08Feb10

Goodness, it seems all we ever announce on this blog is when the Library will be closed…and once again, we will be closed on Monday, February 15th in observance of President’s Day.

But…when we are open (and I promise we are open all the time, except when we go skiing or celebrate the birthdays of the founding fathers), we are really open…open for research, open for perusing amazing photography books, and open for assisting you with your photography information needs.

MoPA has some fantastic new exhibitions up, State of Mind: A California Invitational, Seeing Beauty and In Light: Selections from the Permanent Collection. Come visit the Museum and see some eye-opening exhibitions…and while you are at it, come visit us upstairs in the Library!

We’re open!

(Left image: Edouard Boubat, Lella, Bretagne, 1948, gelatin silver print. Collection Museum of Photographic Arts)
(Right image: Chan Chao, Nyunt Nyunt & Hla Ya, Min May 1997, 2001, chromogenic print. Collection Museum of Photographic Arts)

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The Library is Going Skiing

29Jan10

Hopefully, we won’t break any spines on the slopes (sorry for the corny Library humor!).

Please note that the Library will be closed the week of February 1st-5th, and will reopen on February 8th.

The Library is typically open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9-3pm. Appointments to visit the Library may be made by emailing library@mopa.org or calling 619-238-7559 x216.

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Happy Holidays & Library Hours

21Dec09

Seasons Greetings to everyone!

The Dubois Library will be closed Friday, December 25th and Friday, January 1st. However, we will be open on Wednesday, December 23rd and Wednesday, December 30th from 9-3pm.

If you would like to make an appointment to visit us during those hours (and take a break from the holiday craziness by spending some leisurely time perusing some of our beautiful photography books), please email library@mopa.org or call 619-238-7559 x216.

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Library Hours, 11/27 & 12/4 Revised!

25Nov09

The Dubois Library, will be closed on Thursday, November 26th and Friday, November 27th, in order to recover from what is sure to be an over-indulgence of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. However, if you are interested in visiting the Museum, it will be closed on Thursday, but open on Friday 10-5pm. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

In addition, the Library will NOT be open on 12/4… (REVISED: the initial post stated that the Library would be open, but we will be closed for technology training). Visitors should be advised that Balboa Park will be very busy due to December Nights that evening. The Museum will be closed during the day, but open from 5-9pm. Many public parking lots will be closed and visitors are advised to visit the Balboa Park website for parking and traffic information.

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Farewell Ingrid!

09Nov09

The Library is sad to announce the departure of our amazing colleague, Ingrid Martis. Ingrid has worked in various capacities at MoPA since 2007, most recently as Associate Librarian and Collections Development Coordinator. Ingrid’s contributions to MoPA and the Dubois Library are too many to list, but include the creation of the Podcast program highlighted here on this blog, as well as the development and digitization of many audiovisual resources and archives in the Library. We are so sorry to see her go, but look forward to hearing stories of her Museum and Library adventures in NYC! Best of luck Ingrid, and thank you again for all that you have given to MoPA and the Dubois Library!

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Happy 170th Birthday Photography!

21Aug09

“The crowd was like an electric battery, sending out a stream of sparks. Everyone was happy to see others in a happy mood….Gradually I managed to push through the crowd and attached myself to a group near the meeting-place, who seemed to be scientists. Here I felt myself at last closer to events, both spiritually and physically…After a long wait…the secret gradually unfolds itself…” -Ludwig Pfau¹

It was August 19, 1839, and François Arago was giving a scientific presentation to the Académie des Sciences in the Palais de l’Institut de France. The reason for all of the electric energy, mystery and excitement? As Beaumont Newhall later described, it was the “great moment when photography was, at long last, given to the world”.²

To commemorate that day and moment, staff here at MoPA felt a birthday card was in order…Happy Birthday Photography!

Notes

¹Ludwig Pfau, Kunst und Gewerbe (Stuttgart, 1877), pp. 115-117, translated in Helmut Gernsheim, Origins of Photography (New York, 1982), p. 45.

²Beaumont Newhall, “Eighteen Thirty-Nine: The Birth of Photography,” in Photography: Discovery and Invention: Papers delivered at a symposium celebrating the invention of photography/ organized by the Department of Photographs and held at the J. Paul Getty Museum on January 30, 1989 (Malibu: 1989), pp. 19-30.

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Exhumed from the MoPA Archives

11Aug09

Posted by Jennifer Sunga, Intern at MoPA

For years, The Edmund L. & Nancy K. Dubois Library’s archives included a number of videotapes containing material that dates back to the first years of The Museum of Photographic Arts. Until recently, MoPA had been unable to play or access the content of these tapes, which was captured on antiquated video formats. Thanks to a project by the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, all the hours of footage on these obsolete tapes have been exhumed from the MoPA vault and are finally digitized. As a result, MoPA has been able to rediscover video content that had been inaccessible until now.

The Edmund L. & Nancy K. Dubois Library will be hosting a screening series of this material, scheduled to begin in early 2010. These 20-minute presentations will include a variety of interviews, documentaries, and other films featuring notable photographers including Mary Ellen Mark, Duane Michals, and Arthur Ollman- MoPA founder and past director.

Make sure to sign up for email updates about these special screenings and other events taking place at MoPA. To add yourself to the mailing list, click here:  http://mopa.org/info/generalinfo.htm.

The Duane Michals Show, 1990

Arthur Ollman interview with local TV station.

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Don’t microwave your pictures, freeze them instead!!!

05Aug09

Post written by our fabulous intern Erika Johnson:

On June 29th, the Museum of Photographic Arts held a workshop for staff to finalize a disaster plan in the event of a flood, fire, or any damage to the collection. Presented by the Balboa Park Art Conservation Center, conveniently located in the same building as MoPA, the meeting covered the steps to be taken, by whom, and with what priority.
Each type of photographic process, from every time period, has a slightly different conservation procedure, and depending on the degree of damage, it can take many hours to both assess, stabilize, and begin recovery.
Since disasters can happen anywhere, we thought it would be useful to present a brief summary of techniques that any photographer or book collector, large and small, can initiate if a situation arises. And keep in mind, even a burst pipe, a bathroom flood, or a leak in the roof during a storm can cause significant damage if works of art or susceptible material is not properly protected.

Photographs

• Act as quickly as possible! The longer you wait, the more distortion can happen and if left for more than two to three days, mold can take over. If there is too much to recover and not enough time to begin conservation on all of them within 48 hours, you can freeze albums and prints for as much time as you need in a regular home freezer in a plastic bag.

• Be careful to not store prints in basements, under pipes, or on the floor

• If images are soaked, rinse them with drinking water if there is debris, then separate. If the images have already begun to dry, wet them again and then separate.

• Gelatin silver prints remain stable even when wet, however they can stick to other prints and distort after drying. To dry, place sheets of blotting paper under them with pressure (such as books) on top.

• The best way to save an album is to disassemble, dry each page separately, or even better remove prints and place them in a new album.

• Do NOT put your prints or albums in a microwave to dry. Water droplets on the print can cause spots to form, any metal can cause fire, and plastic will melt.

Books

• Like photographs, don’t store your books near any pipes, in the attic, or stacked on the floor.

• Books can absorb large amounts of water, which can cause irrevocable warping. Paper fibers swell and expand, and if the paper is old it may turn color. If there is no pressure put on the book, it will dry distorted. If the book has a coating the colors will bleed and the pages stick together. If the books are not soaked, leaving them pressed together on the bookshelf will help prevent warping.

• If possible, reduce humidity and increase air circulation.

• If taken off the shelf and placed in a box, store with spine down and close together to increase pressure to prevent distortion.

• Freeze-drying books is the best way to prevent damage, and as with photographs, if you need time this will allow you to work at your desired pace. As the book freezes, ice goes directly into a vapor form, skipping the aqueous state. This is the best route if the books are very wet. As an experiment, the MoPA library has its own book in the freezer (see photo)!

These simple steps can be taken during an emergency and can ultimately save a lot of time and money. Of course for meaningful and priceless pieces, a conservator can be contacted for professional cleaning.

Disaster Recovery, Salvaging Photography, Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, 1998.

A Consumer Guide for the Recovery of Water-Damaged Traditional and Digital Prints, Image Permanence Institute, 2007.

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Ancient Marks by Chris Rainier

02Jul09

Review by Walter Pomeroy,  Dubois Library volunteer since 1999.

Rainier, Chris. Ancient Marks: The Sacred Origins of Tattoos and Body Marking, Media 27, 2004.

“This book transported me back to Junior High School where I first discovered the National Geographic Magazine. The exotic and erotic photos were an eye opener for a teenage boy in the 40’s! It is not surprising that Rainer has worked with the National Geographic.

This is much more than a book of tattooed people. It is a sociological tour of the world, seeking out the ancient customs of body markings, including a world map of the countries visited. In Rainier’s photos we meet compelling individuals who happen to have body markings or piercing. Some are so beautiful, that at first you do not notice the markings. Like the Ukasa mistress on page 128/129, whose delicate curved backside captures your eye before you notice her full body tattoos. Or the Tahitian youth on page 120 who looks like he could stand astride an ocean. Again you have to look very close to see the lace like tattoos. I do not want togive the reader the impression that all is light and beauty in the book. There are some disturbing images that might offend some viewers. I found the book interesting enough to buy it for myself. The soft bound edition comes with a twelve minute DVD travelogue of Rainier and his travels.

This book is in the Dubois Library Collection and is also available for purchase at the Museum Store.

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Who said kids couldn’t visit the library?

13May09

Imagine the scenario : you had planned to do this research on your favorite photographer for 2 months already. You realize 30 minutes before the appointment that your nanny won’t be able to attend to the needs of your offspring… Should you cancel again? Should you just drop your class?

The Dubois Library is thrilled to present the Kids’ Corner, an area entirely dedicated to youngsters from 3 to 10 years old. With more than a hundred books, little Billy will now spend hours juggling between William Wegman’s abecedary, a Digital Photography Guide for kids, or an early edition of the Cat in the Hat Beginner Books. Meanwhile, you can finish up this paper on Ansel Adams, or polish your knowledge about daguerreotypes.

The Kids’ Corner is also open to any kid between the age of 10 and 107.

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