Date: Fri 14-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

family-photo-histories

Full Text:

Family Histories In Photos

A Family Photohistory Workshop for adults and children was held at Newtown

Youth Services (NYS) last Saturday to capture and record family histories.

Professional free-lance photographer Steven Bamberg, who is a member of the

NYS board of directors, took informal black-and-white portraits of family

groups. He was assisted by his daughter, Maggie, 12.

Participants had been invited to bring as many generations of their families

as possible for the photo along with old family photos, journals, and

memorabilia.

Karen Pierce, a Newtown resident who is a representative for Create Memories,

gave a workshop on how to create a family story in photographs and how to

store and display photographs safely.

Mrs Pierce stressed the importance of using acid-free, lignin-free, buffered

materials to mount and store photographs so that they won't fade or discolor.

Everything from the paper album pages to the plastic sleeves and the adhesives

and tapes should be guaranteed to be of archival quality, she said.

"Inexpensive magnetic-page albums which are sold in most stores are the worst

places to store photographs," she said. "The photos are safer in the original

package from the developer or in a box than in a contact album."

Albums and photos should be stored in living areas, not in attics or

basements, where there are extremes of temperature and humidity. Albums should

be stored upright to prevent abrasion on the surface of photographs from the

weight of other pages.

NYS plans to schedule another Family Photohistory Workshop if other families

are interested in participating.