THE monumental task of archiving 2.6 million pictures
spanning six decades is underway in a Northside photo studio.
Up until now, the images which are being scanned and
digitised from their glass, black and white and colour negatives had been
gathering dust in Lensmen Press and Public Relations Photographic Agency, based
in North Strand.
Many of the images capture key events in Irish history
including the inauguration of Presidents, the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar on
O’Connell Street and the visits of The Beatles, Princess Grace, Muhammad Ali
and John F Kennedy to Ireland.
But it’s the ordinary day-to-day Dublin city and Irish
life street scenes, dog shows, weddings, communions, office presentations and
family portraits that are even more powerful and awe-inspiring.
The archive, which is understandably a work in
progress, is available to view online and members of the public are being asked
for their help in identifying those featured in the photographs and where they
were taken.
The images can also be purchased from the website
www.irishphotoarchive.ie
Tara Keown, who is charged with the painstaking task
of scanning all the negatives so that they can be preserved for generations to
come, said the work is a labour of love.
“While it can be time consuming, and to many it may
seem tedious, I seldom tire of it – perhaps because there’s always the
anticipation of new and exciting images lying just around the corner,
? she told
Northside People.
“A typical day consists of scanning negatives. There
are approximately 2.6 million in the archive so it’s a huge project.
“All the negatives from the 1950s are glass, the 60s,
70s and a significant chunk of the 80s black and white and after that colour
predominates.
“If we’re not scanning negatives we are editing,
captioning and ‘cleaning’ them, which means photo shopping out dust or
scratches) then uploading them to our website.”