Established in 1994, Paul Messier's consultancy is devoted to photographic print research and dating, serving collectors and collections worldwide.  He is the founder and Pritzker Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. An art conservator specializing in the preservation and analysis of photographic materials, Paul has published widely and holds patents for the characterization of cultural art and artifacts.  From 2010 to 2015 he directed a Mellon Foundation initiative to establish a department of photograph conservation at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He is the co-editor of Bill Brandt | Henry Moore  (2020) with recent essays appearing in Object Lesson: On the Influence of Richard Benson (2022) and The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media (2023). In 2018, he received the Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation presented by the College Art Association and the American Institute for Conservation.