Summary
Black and white silver gelatin photograph of the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, 1955-1960.
Photograph features a man 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
The photograph features a man wearing white overalls and safety glasses pouring a liquid substance from a beaker into a long glass cylinder. In the background is a workbench with a number of glass bottles, some with liquids in them. The ceiling features exposed pipes.
Physical Description
Black and white silver gelatin photograph, printed on medium weight paper, portrait format with a white border.
More Information
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Collection Names
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Collecting Areas
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Acquisition Information
Donation from Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, Ms. Kate Metcalf - Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, 2005
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Acknowledgement
Courtesy of Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd.
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Place & Date Depicted
Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, Abbotsford, Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1955-1960
Former Kodak executives Ed Wood and John Mitcham suggested the date and knows the person in the photograph so will provide further details. -
Organisation Depicted
Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, Abbotsford, Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1955-1960
Former Kodak executives Ed Wood and John Mitcham suggested the date and knows the person in the photograph so will provide further details. -
Format
Photograph, Black & White
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Inscriptions
Back, handwritten, pencil: 'Film Mixing Lab/ Building 23, 5th floor' (Note that according to former Kodak executives Ed Woods and John Mitcham, this photograph is not the film mixing laboratory despite this inscription, because you can see the buffer solution bottles in the background.) Back, handwritten, bottom edge pencil: 'ABBOTSFORD FACTORY' Back, handwritten, charcoal pencil: '4' p[circled]l
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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Image Dimensions - Photograph
163 mm (Width), 215 mm (Height)
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Keywords
Chemicals, Factory Departments, Factory Workers, Glass, Photography, Safety Wear, Making History - Kodak Collection