June Program

Local amateur photographer, Kaye Treese, will make a presentation on June 4th from his collection of over two hundred 4” x 5” glass negatives he rescued in 1948 from a third floor attic of a house in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Kaye grew up knowing the photographer and his family well. Kaye will show samples of the negatives to illustrate the various aspects of his presentation.

Kaye lived in the area depicted in many of the shots that were taken circa 1910. He will describe the technology of glass negatives and how he acquired this group.

Kaye will give a brief history of the photographer, Charles Rhodes, and describe some of the techniques and equipment he used. Mr. Rhodes seemed to enjoy taking two shots and splicing them together into one interesting picture. The collection also has historical content and depicts life in the 1900s in small town Pennsylvania showing clothes, parades, political rallies, home interiors, funeral wreaths, parks and hunting parties.

Since moving back to Tucson in 1997, Kaye has spent many hours in darkrooms over a period of five years using various processes and media in an attempt to preserve the negatives and the images on them. He will describe the materials and processes he has used in these tasks that included contact printing, 8 x 10 printing, Kodak duplicating film making and now digitizing of the negatives.