Acid-free albums will preserve life of photographic prints

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 38

Acid-free albums will preserve life of photographic prints

A Christchurch importer of photographic albums seems to have been entertaining angels unawares, as the saying goes. To change the analogy, a great leap forward in increasing the stability and longevity of prints in photo albums has been achieved with almost no-one realising it — not even the wholesaler of the album in question. This column learned about it through a letter from a reader, asking for advice. He had gone into a retail shop where the salesman had tried to convince him of the merits of buying an acid-free album, which the salesman claimed would preserve his pictures for much longer than any other; but when he went to another

shop, the staff there had never heard of such an album and doubted its efficacy in any case. After-several days’ investigation, we were able to tell the reader, Mr R. Stedman, that (1) the album was apparently different from others available, and likely to be acid-free as claimed, and (2), for an acid-free album to be on sale to the public at a reasonable price would indeed be a most notable advance. Part of the difficulty in the investigation stemmed from the fact that when we inquired about acid-free albums in the shop cited by Mr Stedman as his source, the assistant spoken to was completely blank on the subject, as was the manager of the wholesale branch of

the same organisation. It was not until the retail manager was contacted, in the second round of the inquiry, that the mystery began to clear. Mr Gary Marshall, manager of Pari Pacific Cameras’ Hereford Street store, took a course in photography at the Photographic Training Centre at which he learned, among other things, the importance of using all acidfree materials in mounting photographic prints. When, therefore, a couple of months ago he saw the label “acid-free” on an “Elite” brand album offered him by his firm’s wholesale branch at a price comparable with that of other similar-sized albums, he invested in a stock. On our inquiry, he referred us to his tutor at the

photographic centre, Mr Keith Nicolson, who confirmed the need for acidfree materials for the permanence of prints. He said that ordinary paper and plastic are both “loaded with acid,” which would be likely to ruin any print within 15 years. The plastic in an acid-free album would need to be specially treated, and the paper used would have to be from cotton or linen, not wood. Even such an album would not ensure permanent preservation of the print, as there is usually a residue of acid in the print left from its processing, and in addition the print would have to be protected against acids and other deleterious substances entering the album after the prints were put in.