Preface

Summary

This book is based on courses in archaeological and conservation photography given to students at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and on the experience of some years of facing, and sometimes solving, archaeological and photographic problems in Britain, the Mediterranean and the Levant.

A number of books have been published on the subject of archaeological photography, although none of them very recently (Cookson (1954), Matthews (1968), Simmons (1969), Conlon (1973), Chéné et Réveillac (1975), Harp (1975), Nassau (1976)). There are also several books on general archaeological techniques which include substantial sections on photography, e.g. Dever and Lance (1978), Joukowsky (1980), Barker (1982). However, there have been considerable changes in archaeology and conservation, and in photography, in recent years. The other disciplines that are so rapidly becoming involved in the traditional field of archaeology frequently call for special photographic techniques; and the new materials and equipment available to photography are bewildering in their diversity. Most important of all, perhaps, the funding that either field or laboratory work can command has by no means kept pace with rising costs, and recommendations of photographic materials and equipment must constantly take such costs into account. In the same way, any suggestions about methods of working must consider the most economical use of time and personnel.

Partly because of these economic pressures, many archaeologists and conservators now take their own photographs, even on major sites, as they have always done on smaller sites and surveys. This book seeks to provide them with a guide through the complexities of modern photography.