Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, 1955-1960.

Photograph features two men working in the Chemical Dispensing Area in the Emulsion Building. The staff here prepared chemicals for emulsion manufacturing from containers of bulk solutions, dispensing it as 'doctors'. The chemical solutions were called 'doctors', probably related to the notion of doctoring or manipulating the emulsions to give them specific properties, for example, to be sensitive to different colour lights.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

Two men standing between shelves of chemicals in large dispensing bottles at right and a work bench with smaller glass bottles on it at left. The men are wearing white overalls and safety glasses. The man at left is pouring chemicals into one of these smaller bottles on the bench. The other man is turning a tap on one of the dispensing bottles on the shelving, and a flow of liquid chemical is falling into a dark coloured glass container sitting on a bench below it. A rubbish bin is sitting below the shelving on the floor. Pipes and sprinklers are fixed to the ceiling.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph, printed on medium weight paper, portrait format with a white border.

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