pasted, going back to 1856. It was in these books that I found dozens of completely forgotten photographs by one of photography's earliest and most famous pioneers, Roger Fenton. Ironically, many of the same photographs were also upstairs in the museum's art Artist Blaschke finishing on Sun diorama into the relationship between public museums and photography. The finding of the Fenton photographs brought me t o a second important realization about museums: that they are often quite unaware of what has accumulated in their own archives. Attention is lavished on their collections, while material relevant t o their own histories seems often t o be neglected, to the point where actual damage occurs t o these fragile records.The Metropolitan Museum of A r t , one of the world's wealthiest and most celebrated museums, knowingly allowed hundreds of irreplaceable institutional negatives to disintegrate for several decades before recently beginning construction of a proper storage facility. A n d , yes, I did eventually find MarcVaux's stunning 1939 photographs of the Louvre as it faced the dawn o f W W II.The negatives for those photographs were inexplicably stored in the archives of the Vid Ingelevics dent curator visual arts Musée de l'Art Moderne at the C e n t r e Georges Pompideau, only a half-hour walk from where I was staying. Camera Obscured shows at the Presentation January House Gallery 2I.Vid from Inglevics on event 9 to February will give a talk on the project Saturday, January 9, at 2 pm; this to the public. is free and open public (604) events Other are planned as well; call 0 986-1351 for information. is an artist living and indepenHis in Vancouver. artwork which images British Axis: A Tale of Two Stories, examines the circulation of the of acclaimed photographer and Albert 19th-century Roger Fenton is touring in Frederick putting touches photography collection, where they were kept in acid-free mattes under strict temperature and humidity-controlled conditions.This was just one more of the many surprising contradictions that emerged as I dug deeper the Victoria included Europe. Museum, currently Neolithic Worship figure in an exhibit at The Field Museum Natural Chicago, Photo by of History, 1930 Charles Carpenter Photograph courtesy ofThe of E lN T E N N I A L Ï A T R E C E N T R E PRESENTS Field Museum Natural Chicago History, magical music -- a showfidl of smiles CHARLOTTE DIAMOND & T h e H u g B u g B a n d January 24, 1 9 9 9 W O S H O W TIMES 2:00pm 11:30am & Ticket price $9.50 each Watch for information about our next Family Festival series in August ' 9 9 Box Office: 984-4484 <|¿ S c o t i a M c L e o d Building Relationships for Life Noon-4pm Monday-Saturday 2300 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver K i m M a i l e y ' V i c t o r i a Rogers «913-7013