I’m both proud of and a bit surprised by what we have been able to accomplish with a small team (and small budget) over the 21 years since our founding.
The best part of this work for me is getting to meet, collaborate with, learn from, and teach so many people with a love for art and history and culture. Every time we deliver training we learn from the people who take our classes. It doesn’t matter if they are full time photographers at a prestigious museum, or undergrads just getting started with photography. Every single person has something to share, a passion for something I don’t know about, a photography tip, a great story to tell.
Our most recent work collaborating with Indigenous communities is an honor. While we are the trainers with imaging skills to impart, we get the incredible opportunity to visit special locations and learn about objects meaningful to these communities. A Passamaquoddy petroglyph site in North East Maine is a special place. It’s not open to the public, in order to protect the fragile artwork. To spend time there and to hear the stories and explanations from Passamaquoddy people is an incredible gift.
Centuries old birthing petroglyph in North East Maine. This glyph has now been imaged in 3D and captured in a Reflectance Transformation Image (RTI) but this was shot with my phone – when the sun came out at the right time of day and lit it up.
This type of collaboration is synergistic. The folks we work with get new skills and a way forward to document their own material culture. Our greatest pleasure is in empowering communities to take control of their own cultural narrative. These culture bearers should be deciding what to document, how things are shared (or not shared) and what stories to tell along with them.
Overall, I am immensely grateful to be part of Cultural Heritage Imaging. So many people have contributed, supported us, advised us. Thank you all! We have an Acknowledgments page on our website, though it isn’t complete. We’ve had the opportunity to meet, and teach, and share knowledge with thousands of people over these 21 years. I look forward to every additional encounter.
Cultural Heritage Imaging
Filed under: Commentary, News, On Location | Tags: Digital Imaging, Digital Preservation, Training
I’m both proud of and a bit surprised by what we have been able to accomplish with a small team (and small budget) over the 21 years since our founding.
The best part of this work for me is getting to meet, collaborate with, learn from, and teach so many people with a love for art and history and culture. Every time we deliver training we learn from the people who take our classes. It doesn’t matter if they are full time photographers at a prestigious museum, or undergrads just getting started with photography. Every single person has something to share, a passion for something I don’t know about, a photography tip, a great story to tell.
Our most recent work collaborating with Indigenous communities is an honor. While we are the trainers with imaging skills to impart, we get the incredible opportunity to visit special locations and learn about objects meaningful to these communities. A Passamaquoddy petroglyph site in North East Maine is a special place. It’s not open to the public, in order to protect the fragile artwork. To spend time there and to hear the stories and explanations from Passamaquoddy people is an incredible gift.
This type of collaboration is synergistic. The folks we work with get new skills and a way forward to document their own material culture. Our greatest pleasure is in empowering communities to take control of their own cultural narrative. These culture bearers should be deciding what to document, how things are shared (or not shared) and what stories to tell along with them.
Overall, I am immensely grateful to be part of Cultural Heritage Imaging. So many people have contributed, supported us, advised us. Thank you all! We have an Acknowledgments page on our website, though it isn’t complete. We’ve had the opportunity to meet, and teach, and share knowledge with thousands of people over these 21 years. I look forward to every additional encounter.