Improving the capacity of preserving and displaying photos in museums

On October 15, the Hanoi Museum coordinated with the American Museum of Natural History to organize a workshop with the theme “Improving capacity in preserving photo collections”. This is an important part of the project “Preserving and preserving memories for families of martyrs in Lai Xa Photography Village”, jointly organized by four museums: Hanoi Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Lai Xa Photography Museum and Nguyen Van Huyen Museum.

Delegates from museums visit Lai Xa Photography Museum. Photo: LX

Director of Hanoi Museum Nguyen Tien Da said that the goal of the workshop is to improve knowledge and practical skills in the work of preserving photographic documents in museums, contributing to preserving and promoting the value of documentary heritage - a precious part of the nation's memory. The workshop was attended by students from museums including: Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam History Museum, Vietnam Fatherland Front Museum, Museum of Ethnology, Museum of Cultures of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups, Police Museum, Archives Center 3, Institute of Monuments Conservation and museums of the provinces: Ninh Binh, Quang Ninh, Hung Yen, Hai Phong, Lai Xa Photography Museum along with lecturers from the Faculty of Heritage - Hanoi University of Culture...

Speaking more about the project "Preserving and preserving memories for families of martyrs in Lai Xa Photography Village", Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Huy - Director of Nguyen Van Huyen Museum - said that the project was launched on September 12, with the first phase focusing on researching and inventorying the memory heritage and material heritage, especially the photographic heritage of martyrs in Lai Xa Photography Village. The project team listened to the stories of 44 martyrs' families, inventoried and evaluated each photo and document related to the martyrs, brought scanners to the community to digitize the photographic heritage of 39 families, and organized a photo preservation experience sharing session right in the community.

There are not many images preserved at Lai Xa Photography Museum left. Photo: LX

In phase 1 of the project, many painful lessons were learned in the work of preserving photos at Lai Xa Photography Museum when many documents were at risk of being lost. Family photos and photos of martyrs were lost. Many families only had a few photos left, many photos had to be restored. "The sad reality is that the three families of martyrs we met no longer have a single photo to worship, they worship the martyrs with the Certificate of Merit from the Fatherland", Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Huy said.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Huy, the decline and loss of photographic documents in Lai Xa Photography Village has many objective and subjective causes, of which the most profound cause is the community's awareness of preserving original photos.

Lessons from the preservation work of Lai Xa Photography Village are also experiences that need to be drawn from for museums in the management and preservation of artifacts, especially photographic documents.

At the workshop, students from museums shared experiences and exchanged skills and techniques in preserving, storing artifacts and displaying them to ensure their attractiveness and service to the public.

Training workshop to improve capacity on preserving photo collections. Photo: Hoang Lan

Participating in the presentation at the workshop, Ms. Barbara - a photo preservation expert from the American Museum of Natural History, who has nearly 40 years of experience in photo preservation - and engineer Le Chi Cong, a preservation officer of the Hanoi Museum, presented real experiences and optimal solutions in depth in photo preservation: causes of damage, preservation principles and direct practice sessions on archiving and processing photo collections.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/nang-cao-nang-luc-bao-quan-va-trung-bay-anh-tai-cac-bao-tang-719756.html