Modes of Seeing: Digitized Photographic Archives and the Experienced User

Abstract

T h e A m e r i c a n A r c h i v i s t , V o l . 7 3 ( F a l l / W i n t e r 2 0 1 0 ) : 4 2 5 -4 6 2 425t h e A m e r i c A n A r c h i v i s t Modes of Seeing: Digitized Photographic Archives and the Experienced UserPaul Conway 0 A b s t r a c tDigitization practice in archives and libraries is now generating digital content and associated tools and practices that are transforming the relationships among archivists, users, and archival collections. The transformative nature of digitization derives in part from the power of the complex technologies to represent images and facilitate their use. This article explores how experienced, but for the most part nonacademic, users see the visual, material, and archival properties of digitized photographic archives while undertaking innovative and insightful projects that push the boundaries of visual interpretation. The study is a qualitative investigation involving independent case studies of seven people who have extensive experience using the photographic archives preserved by the Library of Congress. This article contextualizes the research in a range of literatures, summarizes the research methodology, and presents findings from in-depth interviews that focus on how visually experienced users choose digitized photographs for inclusion in a given project. By understanding these "modes of seeing" the contemporary digitized visual archives, archivists are in a better position to understand the representational implications of their digitization processes.

Historians' use of digital archival collections: The web, historical scholarship, and archival research

“…Conway () takes a different approach to identifying the use of digital resources. He focuses on the expert users and their use of digital photographic archives for their own purposes.…”

“…Dalton and Charnigo (2004, p. 414) found that historians identified foreign language materials as a problem not because they did not read such languages, but mainly because they were often "absent from collections, absent from databases, and difficult to use" in electronic systems. Conway (2010) takes a different approach to identifying the use of digital resources. He focuses on the expert users and their use of digital photographic archives for their own purposes.…”

Reflections on Archival User Studies

“…41 Conway and Goggin each conducted user studies in a specific division of the Library of Congress (the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division, respectively). 42 However, user studies conducted in corporate archives and museum archives are rare.…”

The digital garment: Perspectives on the image and the museum fashion collection database

“…Also stressed are the limitations of user interactivity, which is ultimately controlled by the database structure (Manovich 2013: 70), or objects deemed significant and chosen for inclusion, which is determined by the custodial institution (Bülow and Eastop 2014: 207, 212). How archives restructure 'original' content online or act as interpreters of their institutional digital assets (Ricci 2008), as well as the motivations of users who access the digital archive for different purposes and interpret the database images, structure and content in complex, sophisticated ways (Conway 2010) has been explored within the fields of photography and film.…”