Digitization of 68.000 Degrading Negatives – KUR Project of the Deutsche Fotothek Dresden

With the support of the Cultural Foundations of the Federal Government and the Federal States, a total of 68,000 endangered photographic negatives were digitized at CD-LAB Gartner and CDS Gromke e.K. as part of the KUR Project of the Deutsche Fotothek Dresden, titled “Exemplary Preservation of German Visual History 1945–1960.”

The film base material, which continued to be used well into the 1950s, can suddenly begin to decompose even after decades of stable storage. Once this process starts, it progresses irreversibly and can lead to the complete destruction of photographic negatives within just a few months. Within the framework of the KUR Project, valuable photographic negatives from the post-war period were digitally preserved at CD-LAB Gartner and CDS Gromke e.K.

“The Cultural Foundation of the Federal Government provides seven million euros nationwide for a program dedicated to the conservation and restoration of endangered movable cultural assets (KUR), implemented jointly with the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States. From 121 proposals submitted by museums, archives, and libraries, a jury selected 26 projects featuring culturally and historically significant objects urgently in need of conservation or restoration. These are not only acutely threatened by material decay, but often lack the necessary technical methods or scientific basis for professional restoration.”
— Deutschlandfunk (Germany’s national public radio)

The project “Exemplary Preservation of German Visual History 1945–1960” is one of these 26 selected initiatives, aiming to digitally preserve and make accessible a highly endangered collection of photographic negatives from the years immediately following the end of World War II.

The collection comprises 45,000 black-and-white negatives in formats 6×6, 6×7, 6×9, and 9×12 cm, as well as 23,000 35mm negatives. To ensure efficient scanning, the negatives were pre-sorted by format.
Digitization was carried out at 4,200 dpi for 35mm film, 3,200 dpi for medium formats, and 2,500 dpi for 9×12 cm sheet film, all as 16-bit grayscale images. Occasionally occurring color negatives were scanned at 48-bit RGB, ICC-compliant, and archived in the Adobe RGB working color space.

The complete dataset amounted to 5.5 TB of data, transferred between the service providers and the Fotothek in batches of 500 GB and 1 TB on external drives. Until the data were confirmed as securely stored in the long-term archiving system of the Deutsche Fotothek, a backup copy was retained at CDS Gromke e.K.

Digitization was performed using a Durst Sigma Plus scanner. The condition of the original material varied considerably due to decades of storage. Severely curled negatives required substantial additional effort. Each file was named according to a predefined nomenclature, ensuring quick reference to the corresponding original.

A long-term backup on new film material had to be postponed, as techniques for exposing onto continuous-tone film still require further optimization.

With the completion of the KUR Project, the visual information of historically significant yet endangered photographic works from the post-war period has been successfully preserved in digital form. Furthermore, the collection was effectively indexed and integrated into the Deutsche Fotothek database, making the material accessible through the Fotothek’s online portal for academic and public use.