La photographie scientifique au service des oeuvres d'art

Conferences: la photographie scientifique au service des oeuvres d'art

The C2RMF Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France is a national service of the Ministry of Culture. Its primary mission is to analyze and restore works from the 1200 museums of France. It has 4 departments: documentation, research, restoration, and preventive conservation.

In the research department, the imaging group produces scientific images, such as photography, ultraviolet fluorescence photography, reflectance imaging under infrared and ultraviolet radiation, radiography, X-ray tomography, as well as 3D surface scanning.

These images form part of the artwork's documentation file prior to restoration or research, compiling physical and chemical analyses conducted according to the object's specific issues. Scientific images make it possible to identify pigments, restorations, alterations, pentimenti, and underlying drawings as well as manufacturing techniques. Approximately 400 artworks are imaged each year at the C2RMF, and the laboratory has been in operation since 1920.

In this context where photography and scientific imaging play a central role, we wanted to participate in the bicentenary of photography by organizing a week of seminars aimed at conservation-restoration scientists and an informed audience, while remaining open to all.

This consists of a week of online conferences, one one-hour videoconference per day followed by a discussion period.

The proposed topics are:

- the evolution of scientific photography techniques;

- the photographic archives of the C2RMF;

- the restoration of early photographs;

- studies of the first color photographs by Louis Ducos du Hauron;

- presentation of a contemporary artist combining science and photography.

We hope that these lectures will introduce another aspect of photography to the widest possible audience.