Day 5,6 and 7.

This has pretty much been my view the last three days.

Well. That and the Metro in the morning on my way to the office and the Evening Standard on my way back home in the evening.

I've spent most of my time this week doing restoration work on a set of images from Congo, shot by Ian Berry in 1960. Restoration work basically means going through each scan, which is approximately 300MB in size on a minimum of 66,7% zoom, removing every speck of dust from the scanner, scratch in the negative and other nasties that have found their way on to the scan.

Sounds like pretty easy work, no? Well, it is. In theory. Until you get an image like this one for example which had a huge fucking line/scratch running straight through each face in the god damn picture. And then you multiply that by 107. And there you go. Not so easy any more, is it?

I don't think I've ever been so fidgety and restless in my entire life as I've been these past three days. Getting to envelope, label and send a few hundred press releases for the new "Early Magnum" exhibition was a in fact a welcome relief after a few hours with those negs!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining or anything. I'm enjoying my self very much at the office and I honestly believe I am very lucky to be in the position I'm in. And I wouldn't trade it for the world! But seriously, if I see another speck of dust or a small scratch this weekend I'm pretty sure I'll have some sort of seizure.

However. So far I'm at 30-something files, which means that on Monday it's back to the office for more dusty negs!