Negative capture—SUNY Oswego’s Zahra Zavery prepares to scan a half-century-old negative to create a photo for display in the college’s Found Negative Project. Zavery works with art faculty member Julieve Jubin as an intern with the project. An opening reception for a display of the large photos created from the negatives will be held Nov. 13 in Penfield Library. The display will continue there until Dec. 2. (Photo by Brandon Sherman)
Recovered photos of people and scenes of Oswego in the 1950s and 1960s will be displayed in SUNY Oswego’s Penfield Library until Dec. 2, with an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13.
The Found Negative Project began when a local antiques dealer brought a collection of photographic negatives from the former Gentile Studio in Oswego to the attention of SUNY Oswego faculty, including Julieve Jubin, an associate professor of art who directs the college’s program in photography.
The project emerged with a goal of connecting people past and present in the community. As Jubin explained, “Through the use of photographic processes and social media, we could make these photographs available to the Oswego community with the hopes of connecting the people in the photographs to the community and sharing narratives surrounding the photographs to reflect personal histories and the fabric of Oswego society from the later half of the 20th century to the present.”
Jubin worked with student interns Kelsey Thomas and Zahra Zavery since last spring to scan the negatives and create large photographs for display as well as versions posted on the project’s Facebook page.
Zavery and Thomas used a high-resolution large-format negative scanner to capture all of the details of each negative. Then they used Photoshop to “remove any dust spots or distracting elements as well as adjusting the overall tonality of the image,” Zavery explained.
“Since this project is fairly new, the future holds tremendous opportunities for family and friends to reconnect within the community of Oswego,” Zavery said.
“Moving forward into the coming years, this project will hopefully be displayed many more times on campus, as well as off campus, and begin to link the history of the community to the individuals of the present,” she said.
The display and reception will be free and open to the public. Parking on the SUNY Oswego campus requires a permit; drivers without a current campus parking sticker can visit oswego.edu/administration/parking for information on obtaining a day-use permit.