Michael Kenna Donates all of his work to France

Alex Benjamin · Mar 28, 2023

Alan Edward Klein said:
If I had hard facts about Kenna's deal, I wouldn't be making an assumption.

You don't have the hard facts because you're not looking for them. It's very easy to find. Here's how the negatives are stored in the archives.

These people have been at it for decades. They also hold the works of Lartigues, Kertész and Willy Ronis, as well as thousands of photographs dating from as early as the mid-19th century. They know what they are doing.

The hard facts are on the website: https://mediatheque-patrimoine.culture.gouv.fr/

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 28, 2023

Interestingly, Rockefeller Archives, the largest private repository in the world, regularly digitizes their materials in house as well as outsources. It's not clear what they do with negatives and film but they do scan photos, books, etc.

Here's info on what they do. I would think the French have their involved procedures as well.

Digitization Guide

Digitization practices and procedures for the RAC staff

docs.rockarch.org

https://thecrowleycompany.com/digitizing-scientific-research-rockefeller-archive-center/

Don_ih · Mar 28, 2023

There are established best practices for conservation of print materials and film. You can be pretty sure every worthwhile archive does the best they can with the resources they have.

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 28, 2023

Alex Benjamin said:
You don't have the hard facts because you're not looking for them. It's very easy to find. Here's how the negatives are stored in the archives.

View attachment 334093

These people have been at it for decades. They also hold the works of Lartigues, Kertész and Willy Ronis, as well as thousands of photographs dating from as early as the mid-19th century. They know what they are doing.

The hard facts are on the website: https://mediatheque-patrimoine.culture.gouv.fr/

I don't read French. And your post says nothing about the deal Kenna made with the museum nor whether they scan photos and negatives in additional to caring for the original materials as it appears they do according to what I see in your post.

Do they scan negatives and prints to present them digitally to the public on the web and for research and to preserve them?

Sirius Glass · Mar 28, 2023

Alan Edward Klein said:
I don't read French. And your post says nothing about the deal Kenna made with the museum nor whether they scan photos and negatives in additional to caring for the original materials as it appears they do according to what I see in your post.

Do they scan negatives and prints to present them digitally to the public on the web and for research and to preserve them?

Use Google Translate.

Pieter12 · Mar 28, 2023

Alan Edward Klein said:
Do they scan negatives and prints to present them digitally to the public on the web and for research and to preserve them?

Most museums only allow access to their archives in person with special permission. Those that have work on-line to the general public usually do not have the entire archive available. When they do, many restrict the size of the online image.

MattKing · Mar 28, 2023

Alan Edward Klein said:
If you do 1) you automatically have done 2).

The publicly accessible digital files may or may not provide the sort of resolution and detail required in order to support all the potential uses that museum users expect of collections.
Very often they are optimized for accessibility, not for full research purposes.
Really high resolution digitization of aged materials with complex handling requirements is apparently very expensive, very slow, and very challenging to distribute.
Here is an interesting blog post from the Vancouver Archives concerning their extensive collection of Cirkut negatives of historical Vancouver scenes. The actual collection is much larger than the portion that has been digitized. The negatives themselves are fascinating to see - 8" high by up to 8 feet long:
https://www.vancouverarchives.ca/2011/03/01/the-moore-panorama-digitization-project/

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 28, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Use Google Translate.

You can't translate pictures of words.

Alan Edward Klein · Mar 28, 2023

Pieter12 said:
Most museums only allow access to their archives in person with special permission. Those that have work on-line to the general public usually do not have the entire archive available. When they do, many restrict the size of the online image.

This museum belongs to the French government I believe. Wouldn't they operate differently than a private museum. After all, French taxpayers are paying for it.

Alex Benjamin · Mar 28, 2023

Alan Edward Klein said:
I don't read French.

There's a little button on the upper right corner that lets you switch to English .

Interesting to note that this is not the first donation Kenna did to France of part of his work. Excerpt from the Ministère de la culture's website:

My first donation to France in 2000 was about my work on Nazi concentration and detention camps across Europe. I did not want to profit from the exploitation of prints or images. I thought it was better to have an institution do that. Pierre Borhan, then in charge of the Photographic Heritage, asked me if I would be willing to donate it to France. I was delighted with this idea. The donation consisted of two series of 300 hand-drawn gelatin-silver prints, accompanied by their negatives and rights of use. This donation to the Photographic Heritage was then transferred to the current Heritage and Photography Library (MPP). Six thousand other negatives and contact plates were then given to another institution in France: they belong today to the National Resistance Museum of Champigny-sur-Marne.

Alan Edward Klein said:
your post says nothing about the deal Kenna made with the museum

It's in the website:

3 683 original prints from 43 different countries, negatives and scans from these prints, 175 000 other negatives and their contact sheets, 6 422 work prints from the years tirages 1983-2000, 1 280 Polaroid prints, printed catalogues about his work and all archives relating to his artistic activity in the last 46 years. Reproduction and presentation rights belong to the MPP.

You find this all here: https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Presse/...t-don-de-l-ensemble-de-son-aeuvre-a-la-France

He gives more details on what exactly has been sent and the why in this interview : https://www.culture.gouv.fr/en/News/Outstanding-donation-by-photographer-Michael-Kenna

Alan Edward Klein said:
Do they scan negatives and prints to present them digitally to the public on the web and for research and to preserve them?

Yes. It's on the Plateforme Ouverte du Patrimoine (POP): https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/

You'll see that there is over 10 thousand scans of photographs by Kertész.

Vaughn · Mar 28, 2023

Pieter12 said:
Most museums only allow access to their archives in person with special permission. Those that have work on-line to the general public usually do not have the entire archive available. When they do, many restrict the size of the online image.

Ahhh...the good old days when one could go to the university in Tucson, AZ and visit the Center of Creative Photography. Once there, one could pick two portfolios out of the extensive collection, and they would bring the prints out and put them inside glass topped cases, so one could lean over the prints and drool.

Some portfolios might have 12 prints, some just one or two. But that is what I called access to art. They have stopped doing that for a long time -- almost 30 years since I was there last.

Don_ih · Mar 29, 2023

Vaughn said:
They have stopped doing that for a long time

It's more important to keep them than to see them.

And they got tired of cleaning your drool off the glass

MTGseattle · Aug 9, 2023

I have some first-hand info to add here now. I attended an artist's talk given by Mr. Kenna tonight. His work regarding the concentration camps had already been donated to the institution. @Alex Benjamin highlighted this above.
Like quite a few had speculated, the decision regarding his larger archive was driven by his getting on in years and worrying a bit about what would happen to the work when he passed, etc. He said the pandemic gave him a "forced" opportunity to attend to his archive and get things in order.
He retains all rights (and possession of all?) negatives until the time of his passing. He donated something like 3500-4000 matted, signed and proper prints. He made it sound like 1 each of every print he has exhibited or something like that.
His previous involvement with the institution made it an easy decision for him to land the rest of his work with them.

Michael Kenna Donates all of his work to France

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