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By the late 19th century, photography studios
were everywhere. Latin America was no exception. In
La Paz, Bolivia, a remarkable studio archive has recently
been rediscovered: The Archivo Julio Cordero
has 15,000 glass plate negatives, records, photographic
equipment, and catalogues preserved almost intact since
1898 by three generations of the Cordero family.
The archive will be on exhibit for the first time at
FotoFest 2002. Appointed the official photographer for
many Bolivian administrations, Julio Cordero Sr. had
unusual access to every strata of Bolivian society.
The formal portraits of rich and poor, fiestas, street
scenes, and political ceremonies provide remarkable
insight into Bolivian culture and a little known part
of photographic history from 1898 to the 1940's.
The exhibit is being organized for FotoFest 2002 by
The Photographic Archive Project whose directors Peter
Yenne, Adelma Benavente, and Michelle Penhall have developed
an on-site system of recovering and digitally preserving
important archives. Yenne, a Houston photographer, started
The Archive Project as a non-profit project in 1999.
The project is focusing on Latin America and has worked
on the preservation of numerous Peruvian archives.
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"New technologies, specifically scanners and laptop
computers, make this kind of preservation possible,"
says Yenne. "There are no vintage prints. The archive
can be seen because technology allows us to make quality
prints from high resolution computer scans." The
use of electronic technology here is a serendipitous
connection to the experimentations of contemporary artists with new technologies in other FotoFest 2002 programs.
Digital cataloguing and conservation work on the Cordero collection in La Paz was conceived and coordinated by the Photographic Archive Project, based in Houston, TX. The work on the Cordero collection was carried out in summer 2001, by Adelma Benavente Garcia, Michele M. Penhall and Peter Yenne with a grant from the Earthwatch Institute for Field Research. The Photographic Archive Project, established in 1991, is a Houston-based non-profit organization devoted to the recovery and preservation of photographic archives in developing countries. Since 1999, the Project's research into Andean photo history has been supported by grants from the Earthwatch Institute for Field Research. In 1977, an Earthwatch grant funded the rediscovery of the Martín Chambi's work in Cusco, Peru. Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, promotes sustainable conservation of natural resources and cultural heritage through partnerships between scientists, educators, businesses and the public.
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