Kodak launches Digital Imaging Laboratory and photo exhibition at Syracuse University

Kodak launches Digital Imaging Laboratory and photo exhibition at Syracuse UniversityAugust 31, 2001Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N.Y., and Syracuse University will present a series of events to highlight the “InfoImaging Revolution,” beginning at 3 p.m. Sept. 9 with the opening of an exhibition of the work of internationally renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry at the Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery. The exhibition opening will be followed by the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Kodak Digital Imaging Laboratory in the School of Information Studies at 4 p.m. in Room 3-216 in the Center for Science and Technology.

James Stoffel, senior vice president and chief technical official at Kodak; and Robert Whipple, Kodak Corporate Key Executive for Syracuse University, will attend the opening events, which are free and open to the public.

Other events include a lecture by Dale Skivington, Kodak privacy officer, who will present “Public and Legal Issues in the InfoImaging Revolution” at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Eleanore and Marcus I. Breier Digital Learning Center, Room 4-201 of the Center for Science and Technology. McCurry is also scheduled to be on campus in late September. Further details will be announced. The presentations, sponsored by the School of Information Studies, are free and open to the public.

In addition, Kodak will place two Picture Maker kiosks on the SU campus. One of the kiosks will be located in the Digital Imaging Laboratory, Room 3-234 in the Center for Science and Technology, and the second will be located in the SU Bookstore.

The McCurry exhibition will include photographs from his most recent book, “South Southeast” (Phaidon Press Limited, 2000). The prints that will be exhibited were made in Kodak’s research laboratory from digitized images of the original negatives.

McCurry’s career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion in 1992. He emerged with seven rolls of film sewn into his clothes, images that would be published around the world. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, presented by the National Press Photographers Association; four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest; and two Olivier Rebbot Memorial awards.

“The exhibition is intended to showcase both McCurry’s work and what hybrid imaging technology can do,” Whipple says. “We received digitized copies of the negatives and made exhibition-quality prints from the digital images using high-end processing techniques. The process combines the best of both worlds.”

The new Kodak Digital Imaging Laboratory will enable faculty and students in the School of Information Studies to research ways to sort, classify, retrieve and manage digital images. The lab, to be managed by the school’s Convergence Center, has some of the latest digital imaging hardware and software technologies.

“Once images become cheaper and more flexible, they also become harder to manage,” says Milton Mueller, director of the Convergence Center. “We need to find ways to translate the way consumers and businesses use images into a digital context. We can then develop processes, business models and software tools to manage this kind of digital information.”

Whipple says the School of Information Studies was the obvious choice to house the Kodak-sponsored digital-imaging laboratory.

“The School of Information Studies has a long history in understanding how society uses information to progress and in preparing graduates who are leaders in shaping the information revolution,” Whipple says. “Images are conveyors of information. The rapidly emerging field of information imaging is a large part of our future. Who better to look at the issues involved in managing this InfoImaging Revolution than faculty and students at the School of Information Studies.”