Photographic documents

treatment, conservation/preservation and democratization of access to information

Abstract

The article intends, with the support of the literature review regarding the concepts and themes conservation and preservation of photographic collections, search for alternatives that allow the viability of the treatment, conservation and preservation of the photographic collection of the Setor de Coleções Especiais - SCE of the Biblioteca Central Zila Mamede (BCZM) – UFRN. At first, it presents the collection, as well as its importance for the preservation of the institution’s memory. It states, in a succinct form, about the history of the photography’s emergence, its main creators and also its archaic and incipient experiments, which, however, made possible to the future generations new techniques of photographic production. A few considerations about the importance of the photographic image as a source of research and information, because constitutes a powerful visual communication vehicle. They address about what scholars recommend regarding conservation and preservation of photographic images to the institutions that desire to keep for much more time in their collection this very useful source of visual information. They claim that from the photography emanates a mix of sensations, whether sad or happy sensations, and even sometimes not expressing a feeling at all from those who observe. Lastly, they allude about the undeniable value of information and knowledge, as well as the possibilities of abstractions present in photographic images with their attributes – categories of the image representation -, because, impregnated of relevant contents, those abstractions might be directly related to records of a domain or cognitive level of whom observes it.