Why Do We Photograph?

[Pieter]

I wonder what motivated cavemen to put "stick-like" figures on interior walls or exterior rocks (UV and all) that are apparently archival as well, having held up for such a long time. Very likely no test strips or chemistry involved. Hmm...

For the most part, I don't think they're archival at all. Great care has to be take with what we have now, and most likely nothing like they were originally made. Some art survives because it is in caves, exterior art has greatly faded. Even art that was incised in stone has eroded.

[Mark Sawyer]

Why not!

[John Kasaian]

IMHO Mr. Galli nailed it!

[Drew Wiley]

John started this thread. He's a fish out of water when he's trapped in the city. And one's gills can certainly suffocate in that particular city. During our own recent forest fire air crisis, I had to stay indoors; but at least the darkroom gave me opportunity to revisit the mountains visually, even while in confinement.

[Drew Wiley]

Rock art? What we have left is due to pigments that are essentially UV-proof - natural red oxides like we see on the surface of Mars, on in the deserts etc. Or else carbon blacks. Other pigments could have been used, but are simply unknown to us because they faded long long ago. But primitive societies generally understood the track record of pigments, just like fresco painters did later on, and chose accordingly. For example, I have a large "brick" of red oxide pigment with finger impressions still on one side, and paintbrush strokes on the opposite side, now virtually fossilized or permanently hardened over the millennia since it was last used. When the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were painted, not only was the Pope deeply in debt, but had looted entire countries, especially Germany, for sake of his art patronage. But with a budget like that, Michelangelo could use true lapis blue pigment, as well as crushed semi-precious stones for green, perhaps precious coral for true red, etc. Now those same products cost more per ounce in prime hue than gold itself. But what is suddenly destroying the painting in Pleistocene caves and Egyptians tombs is simply the humidity changes due to tourist's breath. That's why most are now closed to the public. With outdoor Greek marble sculptures, it was acid rain at the inception of the industrial revolution. With the ruins at Nineveh, well, dynamite can instantly make something "non-archival".

[Tin Can]

dust to dust

[Drew Wiley]

Indeed, Randy. One of the most popular and affordable colorants in the Victorian era was "mummy brown" - actually a variety of brown shades obtained by grinding up Egyptian mummies! Apparently their intended afterlife was not "archival" after all.

[jnantz]

Michelangelo could use true lapis blue pigment, as well as crushed semi-precious stones for green, perhaps precious coral for true red, etc.

as scooby cousin would say " SACRE BLEU!"

[Drew Wiley]

Now the art stores are probably selling in tubes surplus Soilant Green.

[Jody_S]

dust to dust

Nothing lasts forever, except student loans.