Alexandra Navratil

From 1916 to 1927, the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester produced a series of "color guidebooks” in an attempt to standardize film production. Used to illustrate the correct way of tinting and toning black and white slides, these nitrate frame film samples are now stored in public and private collections throughout the world. Depending on their storage conditions and history over the last 80-100 years, the film stills exhibit different forms of discoloration and splintering as a result of the brittleness and instability of nitrate. Alexandra Navratil tracked and re-photographed individual stills in the archives, reconstructing her photos into 81 sequences of 4 individual slides.