Colour Photography and Film: Sharing knowledge of analysis, preservation, and conservation of analogue and digital materials 2024

It is with gratitude and satisfaction that we introduce the proceedings that resulted from the third edition of the conference on Colour Photography and Film: Sharing Knowledge of Analysis, Preservation, and Conservation of Analogue and Digital Materials. It was organized in September 2024 by the Gruppo del Colore – Associazione Italiana del Colore (Color Group – Italian Color Association), in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Eye Filmmuseum (Eye), the Institute of Applied Physics “Nello Carrara” of the Italian Nation Research Council (IFAC-CNR), and the Doctoral School in History of Art at Sapienza University in Rome. The conference, held at the University Library in Amsterdam, welcomed more than one hundred participants representing 16 countries across five continents; over 50 of them attended the convening in person. The papers presented over the two-day conference in eight thematic sessions covered a wide range of topics, from the history of photographic and film materials to conservation critique and ethics, from deterioration issues to new restoration treatment approaches. From a historical perspective, the objects studied ranged from colored daguerreotypes to color slides, with a particular focus on specific processes such as Dufaycolor and Polaroid. The history of early color films and the stratification of vernacular materials were also explored. The cultural impact of color in both film and photography was discussed in several papers, as were the importance of a clear strategy and unambiguous policies to ensure proper archival preservation.