Petra Trnková (ed.), Oudadate Pix. Revealing a photographic archive

With surprising frequency, valuable and often long-neglected compilations of photographs come to light, much of their contents in unfortunate states of deterioration. One such collection, consisting largely of tens of thousands of photographs taken between the 1850s and the 1950s was recently revealed in the possession of the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague. Working on the first 22,000 of them, the authors acquired a broad and international base of hands-on experience, something they share here in the hope of contributing to ongoing discussions of attitudes to our photographic legacy. Addressing the history of photography, collection management, digitization, cataloguing, and photograph conservation, this publication is invaluable to all who are concerned with the care of photographic material, whether it is employed as a practical manual, a reference, or simply a catalyst for inspiration and debate.