WorldWide Archive
Nationality: US
Currently Living: San Francisco
Member Since: 11/7/2007
World Wide archive was created by photographer and designer Bennett Hall, based in San Francisco and the Oakland Hills, California
In addition to Hall's photography, the vintage collections are made using a combination of traditional and digital methods. There are no purely digital images - captured as they are called. Each image was originally made with a film camera, in many cases large format up to 8 x 10 inches, the same size Ansel Adams used for example. This means that the resolution of the original content is spectacular, unlike what is commonly created today with digital cameras. As a result, the images can often be enlarged to wall sizes without loss of detail, making them suitable for commercial applications or major architectural installations
The process of digital "migration" is done using state-of-the-art scanning technology - either professional flat beds such as the Creo Eversmart or the Fuji Lanovia scanners or drum scanners. These devices capture resolution at up to 5000 dpi (dots per inch), using optics far superior to those found on common Epson scanners for example. This enables us to preserve the resolution of the originals, and provide an museum quality prints.
The next step is to digitally refine the image with our objective being to provide you with the the highest possible resolution, and an image that has no flaws, scratches or dust marks that would otherwise be common in scanned printing. in the case of our historical collections, we employ a best practices guideline that preserves the historical information and only removes aspects of the photograph that would be considered flaws, or in example, would have been "spotted out" as it was called in the days of photo printing by the photographer had he or she had the option.
We now have about 250 digitally mastered photographs in a variety collections available through ImageKind - Some are samples from the archives we are now working on, such as our NASA collection or Silicon Valley. Imagekind has provided a format to bring our work to the public at affordable prices for the first time through its automated systems, including the interface for frame design.
Our San Francisco collection offers the largest exhibition-grade selection of historical photography of San Francisco available anywhere
Our company was founded by by creative Director and photographer, Bennett Hall who has been involved in large format photography since 1974, and a San Francisco based photographer and business.
You can see other examples of Hall's work on a variety of websites and learn about the business services that his firm provides to corporations, government organizations, hotels and hospitals at the the websites listed below. Hall has also organized about 1000 images on into Flickr collections that you may also find of interest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennetthall/collections
www.SFimages.com
www.CaliforniaImages.com
www.PresidentialImages.com
www.WorldWideArchive.com
Background on Bennett Hall
Creative director and photographer Bennett Hall, has been shooting since 1972 in all formats, 6x7cm, 4x5 and 8x10 view camera. Like with all historical photography in our galleries, the original images were taken with FILM, which inherently captures more information that conventional digital cameras. Hall is also a master of hand-tinting, both traditional methods with dyes and digital processes, a collage artist, as well as a historian responsible for numerous public, private and corporate exhibits. Clients for his work and that or his company Business Image Group ( www.businessimagegroup.com), include the United States District courts, Starwood Hotels, Nestle Beverage Company, Charles Schwab, Huey Lewis and the News, and Tristar Pictures.
Commercial projects
If you are interested in a commercial project that could benefit from on-site design services, custom content development from your archives, research, copywriting a
