Little is known about the Costică Acsinte archives.  According to archives metadata, Costică Acsinte was born in Romania and worked as a photographer during WWI. After the war, he opened a commercial studio, “Foto Splendid C. Acsinte.” Ascinte was a prolific photographer; the Ascinte archives contains over 5,000 glass plate negatives, most taken between 1934-1945. What’s remarkable about the Acsinte photos is the interplay between photographic subject and surface image decay. Most of the scanned glass negatives exhibit some level of image degradation.  Browsing the collection, I’m drawn to the ones which feature subject obscuring cracks and flaked emulsions or where surface noise has obscured the subject altogether.  In the best examples, the imperfections creep into the story world and take up the work of jackets, clothing and hair.  Cracks become patterns in fabric, black gaps in the negative substitute for facial deformities. In other examples, the decasia brings an atmospheric charm to the photos – adding life to othewise dull provincial images.  Here are a few of my favorites: