Mold is the archive’s number one enemy. It is a ‘risk factor’ and an ‘agent of deterioration’ to be fought with. In this sense, their creative potential is unjustly neglected and yet since the dawn of time the transformative power of microorganisms has been used to produce wine, beer, bread and cheese. In an 1856 text designed to encourage research into the stability of photographic processes, the chemist Victor Regnault, first president of the Société française de photographie, insisted that only time could judge the permanence of a particular photographic process. In the same way, time shapes the structure and determines the form of mold. Created out of neglect and disinterest, these images were damaged by an ancient flood, deprived of light for many years and thus transformed into wonders of oblivion. The solitude of their confinement, added to the organic resources inherent in their process (gelatine, potato starch), provided the ideal breeding ground for a random creative proliferation. Now offered up for contemplation, these shattered images are a reminder of how the aesthetic qualities of a photograph are decidedly independent of artistic intent.