New Wilhelm book

The following press release appeared in Museum-L

  20 years in the making, Henry Wilhelm's long-awaited book on the
  permanence and care of color photographs is finally published!

  The _Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital
  Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides and Motion Pictures_ by Henry
  Wilhelm with contributing author Carol Brower is the world's first
  and only book on the often controversial subject of preserving our
  fading color photographic heritage.

  Starting with the first chapter, "Traditional and Digital Color
  Prints, Color Negatives, and Color Slides: Which Products Last
  Longest?" Wilhelm names names, tells which color films and papers
  made by Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Konica, Ilford, 3M, and Polaroid are best
  and which are worst, presents detailed test results gathered during
  his years of evaluating products, and supplies appropriate
  recommendations for the best ways of handling, mounting, framing,
  displaying, and storing color photographs.

  For the first time ever, based on Wilhelm's exhaustive research, the
  book gives the predicted display lives (in years) of color print
  materials. Included is an eye-opening, side-by-side comparison of the
  latest Fujicolor and Kodak Ektacolor papers (see pages 8-12 and Table
  3.1A on page 131).

  In 20 chapters the book destroys two opposing myths of color
  photography--that all color photographs are so impermanent that there
  is no way to save them, and that color materials today are so stable
  that their permanence need not be a concern.

  Wilhelm's book gives straight answers and advice for professional and
  amateur photographers, as well as for museum and gallery
  administrators, archivists, picture-agency personnel, photo labs,
  people entrusted with the care of collections of color photographs and
  motion pictures, and everyone who loves photography.

  All major color processes marketed during the last 15 years are
  covered, along with current photographic materials and some of the
  newest digital color print systems--including Kodak Ektatherm thermal
  dye transfer (dye sublimation) prints and Iris ink-jet color
  prints--as well as UltraStable, EverColor, and Polaroid Permanent
  Color high-stability pigment color print materials that are just now
  entering the market.

  But there is more to this book than hard-hitting product comparisons.
  Throughout the text are compelling stories of faded and lost pictures
  suffered by amateur and professional photographers alike, including
  major movie-makers. The now-faded color portraits of former presidents
  at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas--inscribed and given
  to Johnson by Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy,
  and Harry S. Truman--are shown (see page 36).

  The book tells why zero-degree (-18 degrees C), humidity-controlled
  storage provides *the only way to permanently preserve* color films
  and prints--that is, to keep then in essentially unchanged condition
  for thousands of years.  The zero-degree storage vaults at the John F.
  Kennedy Library in Boston and at NASA in Houston are described, and
  Wilhelm explains why NASA's comprehensive program to preserve the
  color transparencies from the Apollo missions to the moon and from
  other manned spaceflights is the *best color preservation program in
  the world.* The new cold storage facilities for preserving the
  priceless motion picture libraries at Paramount Pictures and Warner
  Bros. in Hollywood are also featured in the book.

  The book explains how the long-standing policy of Kodak and other
  photographic manufacturers of keeping product stability information a
  closely-guarded secret has inhibited the development of more permanent
  color films and papers (see page 287).  Even today, as discussed on
  page 24 of the book, Kodak continues to withhold stability data for
  its RA-4 Ektacolor and Ektachrome papers from the public.

  Few people are aware of the fact that there are no differences in
  image stability between color prints sold by professional portrait and
  wedding photographers--most of whose prints are made with Kodak
  Ektacolor "professional" paper and may sell for many hundreds of
  dollars--and the 35-cent Ektacolor prints available through local
  drugstores.  Worse still, because most professional portraits have
  been retouched and lacquered, they may deteriorate even faster than
  amateur color snapshots (see Chapter 8, "Color Print Fading and the
  Professional Portrait and Wedding Photographer--What to Do About a
  Troubling Situation").

  The vital center of Wilhelm's argument is that the lasting permanence of
  color photography must be a concern to those who use and enjoy color
  pictures and a commitment for those who manufacture color materials and
  digital printing systems.

  The hardcover 8-1/2 x 11-inch volume contains 744 information-packed
  pages, with 543 color and black-and-white illustrations.  Most of the
  photographs appearing in the book were taken by Wilhelm during the two
  decades the book was in preparation (the photographs in Chapters 12 and
  13 were taken by contributing author Carol Brower).

  _The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs: Traditional and Digital
  Color Prints, Color Negatives, Slides, and Motion Pictures_ is available
  directly from Preservation Publishing Company, 719 State Street, P.O.
  Box 567, Grinnell, Iowa 50112 (toll-free telephone: 800-335-6647; fax:
  515-236-0800). The price of the book is $69.95 plus $4.95 shipping and
  handling (overnight and 2nd day shipping is available at additional
  charge).  ISBN 0-911515-00-3. LC 84-6921.

  Preservation Publishing Company
  press release
  July 12, 1993

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:15
                   Distributed: Sunday, July 25, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-7-15-005
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