Proposal for the Stabilisation, Conditioning and Documentation of the Carlos Dorlhiac Photographic Collection at the National Library of Chile

Abstract

This article presents the proposed methodology and the reasoning that guided the decision-making process for the stabilisation and conditioning of the Carlos Dorlhiac Photographic Collection, held by the Photographic Archive of the National Library of Chile. It also reflects on the processes of digitisation and documentation undertaken as part of the project. Developed within the framework of a professional placement carried out in 2019, the project focused on designing a protection and storage system for the collection, understood as an organic set of documents representative of the creator’s activities, while respecting its original structure and order.

The collection exhibits singularities in its organisation, as well as a diversity of documentary typologies and formats that prevented the application of standard procedures used for other photographic collections within the institution. This posed the main challenge of the project and led to the definition of specific intervention criteria and a tailored methodology for its treatment.