Lola Alvarez Bravo Digitization Presentation

The Center for Creative Photography has recently completed the digitization of Lola Alvarez Bravo’s collection of negatives. Numbering over 30,000 negatives in different formats, this project is the culmination of a five year digitization effort. In this session Miles Scott, Digital Archivist at CCP, will discuss the scope of the project from beginning to end. He will also discuss tracking progress, reusing metadata, storage and public access.

Presented at the 2024 VRA Annual Conference in Minneapolis, MN on Wednesday October 9, in the session "Digitizing Artists Collections: Four case studies in capturing, organizing, and sharing visual information".

1. Miles Scott VRA 2024, Minneapolis MN October 9th, 2024 Digitizing the Lola Álvarez Bravo Negatives Ag154-20211011-143245-m Box 24, Folder 19. [misc interior views/artwork] [LAB? photographing self in mirror]

2. Opened 1975 with the archives of five living master photographers: Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer CCP has grown to 270 archival collections, eight million archival objects and 110,000 works from over 2,200 photographers. The Center for Creative Photography

3. Lola Álvarez Bravo Born 1907 in Jalisco, Mexico. Married Manuel Álvarez Bravo in Mexico City in 1925. Manuel introduced Lola to the camera, darkroom and photography techniques while she assisted with printing and developing. They opened a photography gallery in their Mexico City home and were part of a cultural circle that included Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo and others. Lola turned to photography to support herself and her son in 1934 when she and Manuel separated. During her career she worked as a photojournalist, commercial photographer, portraitist, teacher and curator. CCP acquired her archive in 1996. Includes her negatives, and nearly 200 prints. ag154-20210930-142745-m Box 27, Folder 175. [ "“Drawer 4, Box T” [misc. portraits; includes 2 negatives of Juan Soriano]

4. The Project 1st large scale digitization project It took about five years to scan the collection of 38,819 negatives. Mostly BW negatives, some color negatives and slides, 35mm, 4x5, 8x10. Bulk was various medium format BW negatives. Collection selected because: Highly requested At-risk Need for long term preservation storage of originals Diversify collections No copyright restrictions. Ag154-20210211-142043-m Box 55, Folder 1. Group 1 “Retratos Frida Kahlo 1”

5. Imaging Camera and Setup Digital Transitions iXG and DT Atom used for digitization. A session was created for each box and 16 bit Tiffs exported. Individual sessions with RAW files stored on imaging computer and moved to external drive, exported Tiffs stored on local NAS.

6. Imaging Process and Resolution FADGI Guidelines Digitization Worflows: Transmissive ISA Film Targets L* Value = 95 for white L* Value = 5 for black Linear Scientific curve

7. Imaging LCC Lens Cast Calibration Software function to even out the lighting and correct any color cast. Less noticeable in smaller images but makes a big difference in larger ones. Helps reach FADGI 4*

8. Imaging Image and Metadata Make exposure tweaks Add keywords with box and folder numbers Export 16 bit tiffs to NAS All workflows are documented in Confluence Wiki

9. Ag154-20210302-142426-m Box 57, Folder 37. Group 7/4G: 1927-1968 Ag154-20210302-142429-m Box 57, Folder 1. Group 7/4N: 1-47

10. ag154-20211117-143764-m Box 12, Folder 3. Envelope #3 [Diego Rivera murals and paintings] Photographs of Rivera murals/ frescoes, undated, 1926-1935 Ag154-20211007-142866-m Box 24 Folder 1. "Tamayos” [Olga Tamayo and others]

11. Workflow Project Tracking A Jira Epic was made to track boxes as we imaged them. Transferred the project to Aeon when we implemented that to track progress and box location. A catalog was created in Capture 1 to track help maintain session data, RAW files, and exported Tiffs. ag154-20210929-142683-m Box 27, Folder 168. "“Drawer 4, Box T” [misc. portraits; includes 2 negatives of Juan Soriano] Ag154-20210225-142384-m Box 57, Folder 92. Group 7/4Q: 127-253

12. Metadata Metadata CSV file with metadata from ASpace created with one sheet per box. Images tagged with box and folder number as they were digitized. Exiftool used to extract a list of keywords alongside the filenames to add to spreadsheet. Spreadsheet page exported and used to import metadata into Piction.

13. Metadata ag154-20210929-142665- m Box 27, Folder 158. "Drawer 4, Box R” - Retratos acomodor” [misc. artwork, people, buildings, street scenes] View of Piction metadata display

14. Metadata ag154-20230327-112105-m Box 19, Folder 12. "Plants” [3 sleeves] View of Preservica metadata display https://cpparizona.access.preservica.com/

15. All Images © 1995 University of Arizona Foundation, Center for Creative Photography Thank You! For questions feel free to contact me: [email protected] ag154-20210927-90349-m Box 27, Folder 111. "“Drawer 4, Box T” [misc. portraits; includes 2 negatives of Juan Soriano] Ag154-20211011-143099-m Box 24, Folder 10. "Drawer 4, Box K – unidentified interiors, French paintings [exhibition], misc.”