Gawain Weaver

Photograph Conservation

Gawain Weaver is a photograph conservator from the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his B.A. degrees in art history and chemistry from Sonoma State University (2001), and an M.A. in art history and diploma in conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2005).

Gawain currently holds a fellowship at the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at the George Eastman House (more about Gawain's fellowship). He will be returning to Northern California in 2008.

Current research interests include the deterioration of gelatin silver prints in the fine art context, as well as the history and preservation of additive screen plates—a method of color photography popular in the early 20th century.

The most well-known example of additive screen plates is the autochrome, such as this anonymous French autochrome circa 1910, shown on the left. The colored potato starch grains which compose an autochrome image can be seen in the photomicrograph (image at < 100 µm resolution), used as the background on this page.

contact Gawain at info@gawainweaver.com