Description
The determination of a photograph’s archival worth is rooted in the historical context of institutions tasked with preserving, cataloging, and providing access to photographs as part of their social function. How large amounts of image data are dealt with is connected to the authority that archives hold and how it will evolve in the future. It decides which logic of distribution and circulation controls the access to the historical and cultural memory of society, and to what extent the archived photographs are socially accepted as part of society’s visual culture and historical understanding. During the appraisal process, archivists make decisions that have a fundamental impact on how a society in general— and historians in particular— can create relationships to the past. It is not only a question of deciding which images to keep and which to destroy, but also how this decision can reposition or reframe the relative prominence of what is preserved. At present, the appraisal process of images needs to deal with specific challenges emerging from digitization processes and digital-born images.In the first section of this paper, we will present four main challenges identified during expert interviews with archivists. These include trying to avoid knowledge loss, the necessity or not of archiving the original, the growing number of digital photographs, the practical comparability during the appraisal process and the difficulty of assessing originality and integrity of (digital born) sources. In the second section, we propose to reflect on possible mitigation strategies for these challenges, which can involve digital methods such as distant viewing, or, on the other hand, a more participatory and collaborative approach which borrows propositions from the field of digital public history. These include concepts such as shared authority, digital hermeneutics for archivists and historians, or archiving structures such as the “post-custodial” model.
| Period | 14 Nov 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Cultural Heritage Data & Power |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Marburg, GermanyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |