PhotoArts Imaging Professionals, LLC

Roy T. Canizaro, Electronic & Time Based Media Conservator

We are fortunate to have Roy T. Canizaro, Vice President of PhotoArts Imaging Professionals, LLC, as our electronic & time based media conservator.  Mr. Canizaro has decades of training and experience creating many forms of the audio, video, & film-based media, learning them as they emerged in the 20th C.  He learned to operate & repair the equipment that created & played all these media, so understands how important these items are to the original meaning that the artist was trying to impart to the participant audience.

Roy has worked in & tested photography & movie films, audio and video materials for five decades as a photographer, videographer, electronics technician, and conservator.  Projects include work on individual photographic items and collections, assessment for conservation treatments & preservation of analog & digital media and files.  He consults with clients on traditional & digital archiving and the remediation of water and storm damaged materials, including environmental and fungal damages.

Mr. Canizaro has treated traditional & digital photographic items, 8mm & 16mm movie films – silent and sound, analog & digital video and audio tapes, cassettes, and vinyl & lacquer records.  These include clay-based & metal supported records.  He has worked with time based media involving the blending of audio and separate video materials, including reel-to-reel silent movies.

Some client work has involved the reformatting of digital files or the creation of digital replicas to blend with clients’ needs in their current collections.  Mr. Canizaro has recovered deleted photographs from digital cards & drives for clients who have accidentally erased them.  He has recovered video tape footage for various legal proceedings.

Mr. Canizaro is an Associate member of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), and the specialty groups of Electronic Media and Photographic Materials.  He follows the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice in all his conservation work.  He has attended the Plastics Associated with Photography workshops & symposium (2016), the PMG specialty group Bi-annual meetings (2015, 2017), and is active in the Connecting to Collections Care Forum as an Expert in the A-V, Film and Electronic equipment, analog & digital forms.  He is a member of the Southeast Regional Conservation Association.

Roy’s training began in 1960, studying with the local photography lab’s personnel.  He received his training in the use of the studio television cameras, transmission & electronics of the TV station at WLOX-TV on the MS Gulf Coast.  He was the Daytime Production manager & assisted with the station’s move from B&W to Color broadcasting, training in the use of the new equipment.  From 1964 – 1967, Roy studied pre-med & science in MS Community College and the University of Southern MS.

In the Navy his training included six Naval Schools: Class ranks from 1st in Class to Top 10% (1967-68); the Navy Nuclear Power Schools:  Organic/Inorganic Chemistry, Physics, Electronics, Radiological & Haz-Mat Controls:  Class rank in Top 10 % (1969).  In 1970, Roy was selected for the Special Submarine Periscope Photography & Videography Class, which included operation & maintenance of all the equipment.  Class  rank: 1st in Class.

He uses still film cameras, various movie camera formats, video cameras & camcorders, audio recording & playback equipment for testing & creating his own work.  Roy continues to research various materials & media to increase his knowledge for consulting with our clients & colleagues in the time based media and time based art forms.