Fields of Vision: Toward a New Theory of Visual Literacy for Digitized Archival Photographs

Abstract

ABSTRACT For well over a decade, archivists and archival scholars have examined the theoretical and practical implications of digitizing visual records. Significant components of this inquiry include the relevance of visual literacy research to archival practice as well as the implications of the apparent loss of intrinsic value, meaning,and context through the processes of digital representation. What is missing most prominently from essentially archivist- and process-centric perspectives is a deep understanding of the user experience of finding meaning in visual archives. This article presents a new multi-faceted theory of visual meaning, derived from in-depth case studies of highly experienced users of digitized photographic archives. The paper contextualizes a “Fields of Vision” theory in the literature on literacy and material loss, demonstrating that product-based use encompasses modes of discovering, storytelling, and landscaping that are fundamentally archival in their construction. The digitization of archival photographs also produces distinctive variation in the value that experienced users place on the material properties of original source photographs. The paper concludes with the implications of the “Fields of Vision” theory for future user-based research.