The uninitiated would think "What's the big deal? Just make a new copy." It's interesting that photography can be about both unlimited reproducibility and the uniqueness and impermanence of what is considered a "photo".
We had discussion on Cindy Sherman's print-replacement program on here before (that thread may have ended up locked - those type often do....)
There is actually a reference to that Cindy Sherman program in the article - which Don might be referring to here.
I thought this from Jeff Wall was interesting:
"JW: Today happens to be the final day of a project I began in 2005—making reserve copies of all my transparencies. Twenty years later, the last roll is running and the last prints are being made. I did it because I knew I could produce excellent, long-lasting prints, pushing the problem of preserving those transparencies back another fifty years. By then, there’ll be another solution. I’ve never felt the need to do the same for silver gelatin or—so far—for ink-jet."
Those "transparencies" are, I expect, the wall sized Cibachromes.
