3:28 p.m., Aug. 21, 2009----I'm spending my summer as an intern in the conservation department at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. While at MoMA, I'm participating in the humidification and flattening treatment of a fiber-based silver gelatin developed-out print. The print is a portrait of the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and was created in 1959 by the iconic French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

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This treatment project has included extensive research on the history of the print and the significance of Cartier-Bresson's work, examination and documentation of the print's current condition, research and identification of a proposed treatment protocol, execution of the treatment, and documentation of the results. I'm also conducting X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) on over 150 samples from The Paul Messier Historic Photographic Papers collection. The papers chosen for analysis range in date from 1899 to 1994 and represent a diversity of brands and manufacturers including Kodak, Ilford, Agfa, Gevaert, Ansco, Forte, Haloid and DuPont, among others. XRF is an analytical technique used to identify inorganic elements.

This analysis will complement other research already carried out in a number of studies focused on expanding the current understanding of photographic papers and how their manufacture has changed over time. The ultimate goal for this research is to assist conservators, collectors and connoisseurs of photography with the provenance, authentication and dating of silver gelatin prints.