Understanding Images, Creating and Curating at the Detroit Observatory

What is visual literacy? How do prevailing technology and current scholarship both
enable and require the integration of photographs into archival theory and practice?
What are the particular challenges of establishing film-based photographic collections
and of developing digital image banks? What are the core skill sets required of an
archivist or curator responsible for photographic collections? What are some of the
particular concerns of professional photographers as they consider donating images to
archives? How might archivists learn to read across disciplines for a deeper
understanding of visual media? As Joanna Sassoon has noted, "criticisms of archival
practices of custodial institutions by researchers who understand the evidential values of
photographs provide clear demonstration that, far from being format-neutral, what
archivists do to photographic materials demonstrates a lack of understanding of the
specific needs of formats in their custody."

After a brief tour of the Detroit Observatory led by Karen Wight, this session will feature
a presentation by Joan M. Schwartz, addressing in general the questions above followed
by a discussion of writings in this week's sites/sources.

Please RSVP with a comment!