Current Unpaid Interns at CCI
Hye-Sung AHN

I am currently undertaking a 10-week internship with CCI photographs conservator Greg Hill as part of the final year of my Master’s studies at the Université Paris I, Panthéon – Sorbonne, where I am registered in the Conservation-Restoration of Cultural Property program with a specialization in photography and graphic arts.
                  
During my time at CCI, I am involved with the conservation treatment of a poster —Newfoundland Heroes — from The Rooms Provincial Archives in St. John’s, NL. The poster comprises a watercolour and 48 small photographic portraits of soldiers (the first members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment) who were killed or who died during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. Most of the photographs are originals, taken by either Robert Palfrey Holloway or Elsie Holloway, Newfoundland’s first female professional photographer.

The 48 photographs are mounted on secondary supports and a poor-quality, fragile and damaged tertiary support (the mounting cardboard), which is mechanically quite unstable. There are air pockets between the photographs and the secondary supports, the watercolour is split in two, and the surfaces of the photographs show various levels of degradation. The goal of the treatment is to ensure the poster’s long-term preservation by physically stabilizing it by replacing the tertiary support while respecting its aesthetic qualities.

This unique poster is typical of its time and, as the work of Newfoundland’s first female professional photographer, it has great historical value. Following the conservation treatment, it will generate much interest among researchers and the public.