When guests sit down to the Global Archive Foundation's first fund-raising dinner this weekend at the Bermuda National Gallery, each of them will have contributed $500 to support the new organisation. In exchange, they will receive a high-quality, Karl Struss limited edition print, as well as a permanent place on the Foundation website as a donor.

The Global Archive Foundation, a registered charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee with charitable objects, was first conceived by Bermudian professional photographer and environmental activist Ian Macdonald-Smith in 1994, who has been working on the idea ever since.

Its mission statement is "to create, through global collaboration, a non-profit, comprehensive digital Internet archive of existing and future photographic records which will provide myriad opportunities to effectively monitor, preserve and enhance our finite and delicate environment".

Mr. Macdonald-Smith is the Foundation's executive director.

Karl Struss is ranked among the great names in early twentieth century photography, including Alfred Steiglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Steichen. Today his work exists mainly in museums and is rarely seen.

His images are highly sought after by collectors, and his auction record is $170,000.

Bermuda is extremely fortunate to have been able to repatriate the original negatives of the photographs he took here in the 1950s, which are now owned by Mr. Macdonald-Smith.

The 8-inch by 8-inch selected prints of Struss' Bermuda images, each of which is produced in a limited edition of 13, have been printed with 100 percent pigmented inks on Pictorico high gloss film (ceramic coated plastic sheets designed to withstand humid environments). Two of each edition (numbers 11 and 12) will be made available for the Global Archive at $500. Thereafter, the price of the prints will rise to an estimated $2,500 each.

Urging local residents wanting to own a limited edition Struss print at the bargain price of $500 to move quickly and support the Foundation dinner, Mr. Macdonald-Smith warns that "the markets are New York, Los Angeles and Bermuda, and they will be bought by serious collectors of photography who will understand their value. I am raising money for the Foundation and giving Bermudians an opportunity to invest in Bermuda art at a reasonable price."

In conjunction with the fund-raiser, the National Gallery is hosting a never-before-seen exhibition of approximately two-thirds of the Bermuda images which will be included in the book. The exhibition will run from February 20-27.

Struss, an Academy award-winning cinematographer, first visited Bermuda in 1912, when he described the Island as "probably the most beautiful, charming and quaint place I have ever visited, and as for colour, there is nothing like it anywhere in Europe". He returned in 1913 and again in 1914, when he spent four months shooting scenes for the Bermuda Trade Development Board's illustrated booklet, 'Bermuda: Nature's Fairyland'.

It was not until the late 1950s that Struss, who was born in 1886, made his fourth visit to the Island, during which he travelled from one end to the other with his three-dimensional or stereoscopic camera and colour film. He had a superb eye for composition, and the soft-focus quality of his images, harking back to his days as a pictorialist, give his images an artistic quality.

Today, Struss' Bermuda time capsule creates an important and interesting perspective. The Island in the late 1950s was at a pivotal point in its history, the civil rights movement was gaining momentum, the old order was being forced to change, and tourism was about to enter a stage of massive construction. Struss was aware of many changes from his previous visits in the early 1900s ? an awareness that is apparent in the images and the disparities of Bermuda's society, which he sensitively recorded.

Bermuda is extremely fortunate to have the negatives of this body of work repatriated to the Island, where they are now owned by Mr. Macdonald-Smith, who is currently preparing a book entitled, 'Karl Struss' Bermudian Journey', which will contain some 69 images. Part of the preparation includes painstaking restoration of the images, a process which requires approximately four hours per image in order to retain the colour palette and tone of the 1950s colour.

As a fellow professional, Mr. Macdonald-Smith is excited by the quality of Struss' work.

"We always see images of the 1950s in black and white, while Struss used colour, which is what makes his images seem surreal. We actually make that connection because these are Bermuda colours," he says. "He also had a delicious sense of humour with his compositions, and he was also socially aware and understood Bermuda's racial history.

"He was not prepared to portray a nice, white island but also went to the back of town to photograph. His understanding of Bermuda as an entity was very refined, and how he was able to describe that photographically was very powerful."

Saturday night's black tie cocktail reception and dinner begins at 7 p.m. Tickets: $500 per person. For further information contact Mr. Macdonald-Smith at imacsmithcwbda.bm or ( 292-3295.

To view the Struss images go to website www.imacsmith.com, sign in as a new user, go to image library, and select Karl Struss from 'Photographers' category.

Comprehensive work on the Global Archive Foundation has been completed, and is expected to be fully functional and ready for launching shortly.