Studio News: Lost Negatives Due to Flood

Inez. At the Penthouse Club New York. Photo: Tony Ward, Copyright 2021

Text by Tony Ward, Copyright 2021

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Studio News: Lost Negatives Due to Flood

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It is always a good practice to go back through the files to find new pictures that were never made available to the public before. Unfortunately, some of the negatives from this shoot for Neiman Marcus in May of 2004 were lost during a flood at the studio on July 25, 2021.  The flood was caused by a ruptured water main at the corner of 6th & Bainbridge streets in Philadelphia.  We were at ground zero during the event taking on thousands of gallons of water before the Philadelphia Water Department was able to shutdown the water flowing at break neck speed through the ruptured pipe. 

It has taken me weeks to sift through the losses of countless negatives that were in the darkroom suite while I was  in the process of reviewing negatives from the archives for an upcoming exhibition at the Dupree Gallery opening on October 1, 2021.  Unfortunately, some of the images I was considering to exhibit have been destroyed due to catastrophic flood damage to the negatives that were in the process of being printed in the darkroom in consideration for the exhibition. 

This color negative of  Inez, modeling lingerie for my client Neiman Marcus  survived the floodwaters. Approximately, twelve thousand seven hundred and twenty  other negatives in color and black and white did not have the same fate. 

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