Greetings from Gordon Hull and Debra Isaac in Nairobi, Kenya!

In a unique collaboration between our own UCLA Rock Art Archive and the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA), Gordon and I are here in Kenya, seamlessly implementing our computer and designs skills honed in our long-standing work at the Archive.

TARA’s mission is very similar to that of the UCLA Rock Art Archive: To create greater global awareness of the importance and endangered state of African Rock Art; to survey sites, monitor status and be an information resource and archive; and to promote and support rock art conservation measures.

David Coulson founded TARA in 1996 with the support of two of friends of rock art research: Dr. Mary Leaky and Sir Laurens Van der Post. David is the Chairman of TARA and has operated as a freelance photographer/writer in many parts of Africa for the past 20 years. He has lectured and exhibited internationally and has published five major books. Time, People, and National Geographic have reported on his rock art work.

Since its inception, TARA has funded expeditions across Africa, including one to conserve the important site of the Dabous giraffes in Niger (recognized as a masterpiece of prehistoric art); sponsored archaeology students in their research, and published African Rock Art: Paintings and Engravings on Stone in 2001. In October, TARA will host a fundraising dinner in the delegates’ dining room at the United Nations, and in November, present an African Rock Art Conference in Nairobi.

Where do Gordon and I come in? We are helping TARA to organize and establish a digital archive of African rock art images. We are working closest to TARA staff person Rowena White. Rowena was born in Kenya. She is a biological oceanographer who has a Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Bangor and has just completed a 'Guide to the coastal surface zooplankton of the south-western Indian Ocean.' Rowena is an accomplished photographer with her own collection of 10,000 images.

The TARA facility in which we are working consists of two buildings. One contains the administrative offices and the other houses the photographic archive and its computer equipment. With a total number of about 70,000 slides taken in 16 African countries, TARA holds rock art images continent-wide. Thanks to a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the archive is equipped with two G5 Macintosh computers with a professional Imacon drum scanner attached to each. In addition, each computer has access to an Epson wide format printer and a Kodak photographic printer.

Our primary task has been to make the digital archive operational. I have been scanning slides at a high resolution, and then use Adobe Photoshop for image correction, just as we do at UCLA. For digitally enhancing images of petroglyphs and pictographs, the most important task is to isolate the art from the rock. After selecting the pigment or color of the incision you can perform a multitude of operations to make the rock art more visible while keeping the integrity of the image.

I have been teaching Rowena various techniques in Photoshop to be used for image correction and graphic design in general.

Gordon, who is responsible for programming the photographic database and establishing the procedures required for data entry and maintenance at the UCLA Rock Art Archive, is doing similar work at TARA. He has designed the image database contents and format. He is currently designing a step by step procedure for storing the scanned images in the database, entering descriptive data for each image and writing the records to DVDs.

TARA has generously provided a three bedroom house for us to stay in. It is surrounded by a lovely garden in a compound within walking distance to the TARA facility.

Prior to arrival we spent eight unforgettable days on safari in Tanzania! We saw many of the animals that are in Africa’s vibrant rock art paintings. Kenya and Tanzania are beautiful countries, and working at TARA has been a very unique experience for us both. Thanks to Jo Anne Van Tilburg for making this collaboration between the UCLA Rock Art Archive and TARA possible!

Debra Isaac
Graphic Artist, UCLA

Gordon Hull
Database Analyst, UCLA

David Coulson
Founder, TARA

Rowena White
Archive Manager,TARA