I thank Dr Yoshiho Yasugi, National Museum of Ethnology (Japan) for an appointment as Visiting Professor for six months at that museum. I learned Adobe Photoshop during my project there, capably instructed by Jack Sulak. I also thank Mr Kanikuni. computer technician at the National Museum. I would not have had the technical capability of doing an entire Web site without this six months intensive period of working on digital imaging hardware and software at the National Museum.
The high end computer equipment used to create this F.L.A.A.R. Web site was made possible by donations from Gerald Benjamin and an anonymous benefactor in California. A grant for $100,000 from an American Foundation made it possible for F.L.A.A.R. to enter the digital era. This Web site is the first public result of our digital transformation. The long range goal is to digitize our entire archive so that students and scholars canuse this 30-years of photography to dig deep into the inner core of Maya civilization.
It has cost several million dollars to take the photographs over three decades...it will take a single million dollars to catalog, digitize, and make the archiveavailable. Although we rather obviously do not have this final million dollars at hand, we are at least hard at work with the $100,000 seed money.
The Leica, Hasselblad, Linhof, and Nikon photographic equipment used to take the photographs used in this Web site are courtesy of donations by Jack Sulak, Eldon Leiter, Cathy Sells, Vincent Phillips, Em Reynolds, estate of Dr John Conway, Harry Pearson, Alec and Gail Merriam.
We send special thanks to a considerate couple in Wilmington, Delaware who understand that advances in archaeological research can best be enhanced by annual donations. Their donations, combined with contributions by CathySells, made it possible for us to obtain the two Linhof camera systems which upgraded the quality of the F.L.A.A.R. Photo Archive (a 4x5 and subsequently an 8x10 Linhof).
F.L.A.A.R. logo concept by N. Hellmuth, drawn by R. Michael Farwell,
Computer imaging consultant (for Macintosh systems) Professor Chuck Fagg,BCC
Special Consultant for Macintosh systems: Del Fox, Director, Technical Services, BCC
Creative force for Web concepts: James L. Robinson, WBCC+FLAAR
Computer Technician (for PC systems) Steve Rossi, BCC+FLAAR
Consultant for photography and digital imaging: Professor Roland Miller, BCC
Encouragement to utilize digital images for public education: Dr Maxwell King, President Brevard Community College system.
Encouragement which provides a productive institutional support system:Dr Tace Crouse, President Cocoa Campus of the Brevard Community College system.
Personal encouragement, companionship, and partnership, Andrea David, F.L.A.A.R. office for Europe, Essen-Werden, Germany
E-mail Communications and computer consultant: Alex Thurm, Frankfurt, Germany
BCC Public Relations, Jim Ross and staff (we thank his staff for proof-reading an earlier version of an initial portion of the content. The author takes blame, however, for subsequent material that was not proofread).
All photographs are by Nicholas Hellmuth, copyright 1996 by the Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research.
All photographs of the Maya ruins of Copan, Honduras,
were taken with the permission of I.H.A.H.
and should not be further reproduced without their permission.
All photographs of the Museo Popol Vuh, Guatemala City,were taken with permission and should not be further reproduced withoutthe permission of the museum.
All photographs of Maya art in the Museo Carlos Pellicer,CICOM, Villahermosa, Tabasco, were taken with permission of the museum directorand used here with the permission of the Director of Museums for the Tabasco state cultural institute.
F.L.A.A.R. thanks Kaidan for their donation of equipment which allowed us to do virtual reality views of Maya art and artifacts.
I thank American Power Conversion for their donation of a high-end battery backup unit for our computer system.
I thank AutoDesk for their donation of AutoCad which helped us on an earlier project.