Description of Photo Collections by John Hanson

Welcome to the LIS 471 - Spring 2013
Blog post on description of photographic collections!
by John Hanson

I have selected the online catalogs of the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and the BPL (Boston Public Library).  

Here is the MFA home page with the Collections' drop down box displayed.  "Photography" is in second column at bottom. The search box in the upper right is a great place to start for quick catalog searches with incomplete information of what you are looking for.  There is a "Collection Search", column one at the top, which gives you an option of making an advanced search.  I discuss search terms later in the posting.

Here is the BPL's home page with the 'research & specialized services' drop down box displayed.  The link to the 'Prints and Photographs' page is highlighted.  Its not the most user-friendly way to encourage the casual user to access the online photo collection.  You need a little perseverance to
 to find it.  I almost didn't use this site for this reason.  There is a search box in the upper right which by default searches the catalog for books, movies etc.  This will not help in search of the online photo collections.  If you choose 'bpl.org' to the right then you will have a good chance to find a photographic collection if you know at least part of the title of the collection.  Looking for a file name or title of an item level photograph will not produce results. 

To get a better idea of how the MFA and BPL catalog, describe and present photographs online, I felt it would be good to get up close and personal to one of the collections from each site.  This approach  allowed me to find out what value online presentation adds to a photographic collection and how it differs for each collection and institution.  Especially, in the case of a museum like the MFA, where they display art in its original form, I felt an impulse to know more of the intentions of the artist of the photographs.  In order to do this I used the insights and skills that I have gained throughout the LIS 471 course.   A quick note about copying images for fair practice use which is something we will cover later in the course.  The MFA site doesn't allow a quick 'right click' and 'save image as', whereas the BPL site does allow this.  The Karsh photos were copied from google images.

I chose to look more closely at the Yousuf Karsh Collection at the MFA and the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection at the BPL. 

Let's begin.....the Yousuf Karsh Collection at the MFA...

The MFA has several collections from individual photographers, including Herb Ritts and Joseph Sudek as well as a 'Curator's Choice Selection', which has pretty much every type of photograph that we covered in LIS 471.  Each collection is accessed through the 'Photography' page (from Home Page, click Collections then Photography).  

Here is the 'Photography' page, top and bottom.  The collections are listed at the bottom.  Clicking on 'Alfred Stieglitz' produced 'We're Sorry! There are no results....' page.  So, the site has not been updated recently or is malfunctioning for the Stieglitz collection.  The collections search box with advanced option is to the upper left.

Every collection has the same format, an enlarged photograph with some collection level description and a carousel of thumbnail images below and a lot of negative space.  The collection level description doesn’t list the number of photos or the formats used or a date range.

Here is a screenshot of the MFA's Yousuf Karsh Collection page:

Photos, thoughts, a critique and more....

Self Portrait

1962

Photo by Yousuf Karsh*

Gelatin Silver Print

I found the Yousuf Karsh Collection of Photography at theMFA.  I didn’t recall ever hearing of Karsh.  Once I entered the introduction page of the collection and caught a glimpse of the thumbnail images lined up in the photo carousel, I immediately recognized the rich tonal range of the black and white images and the composition of the subject elements in the portraits.  I recognized not just the images of Humphrey Bogart, Einstein and Winston Churchill but the contrast, space and point of view of the particular photo of those individuals.  That is, I was looking at the photos and taking in all the elements and realizing that I am looking at objects of art by one artist, Karsh.  I was captivated by the images and I was eager to see what other iconic images were in the collection.   

Humphrey Bogart

1946

Photo by Yousuf Karsh*

Gelatin Silver Print

Winston Churchill

1941

Photo by Yousuf Karsh*

Gelatin Silver Print

Picasso

1954

Photo by Yousuf Karsh*

Gelatin Silver Print

Brigette Bardot

1958

Photo by Yousuf Karsh*

Gelatin Silver Print

Of the 196 photos, approximately 188 are portraits of distinguished people of the middle to late twentieth century.  The collection level description is a paragraph briefly describing Karsh’s notoriety as a portrait photographer of the notable figures of his time, listing several of them, such as Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso and Sophia Loren.  

Thoughts and questions raised when reading a collection:

I think it would be good to look at some questions that were raised as I browsed the collection.

What is the place of portrait photography in the history of photography?  Also, is there a philosophy of photographing portraits and what is the psychological aspect of the art?  Does the MFA's organization and digital efforts succeed in presenting Karsh's portrait photography?  The attempt to answer these questions or at least shed some light will help in the overall critique of the collection.

Rosenblum (2004, 4th ed.), in A World History of Photography, addresses these questions when she states that "the basic treatment of the human face has in fact, changed little since the medium’s infancy.  Expression, gesture, lighting, and decor continue to be seen as key to revealing the sitter’s class, profession, and psychology"  (p. 568).   

Graham Clarke (1997) provides a critique of the portrait in photography when he states that “from the inception of the portrait photograph photographers have been concerned to express in the single image an assumed ‘inner’ being” (p. 101).  

I thought it would be important to add Karsh's own words (yes, a long quote), which articulate his approach to the subjects of his portraits. Karsh (1967) writes "within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize. (p. 10).

Looking at dozens of photos, I realized that the distinguished personage is a part placed in the elements of Karsh's whole photographic process.  In his photos, the innermost self is revealed only to find itself captured in the world of a Karsh photo session.
 

Critique of the MFA site:

The MFA site succeeds in drawing one into the pleasure of viewing photographic art.  Its easy to browse through the whole collection, enlarge a photo, inspect the photo through panning and zooming tools.


Searching the catalog

As far as accessing the Yousuf Karsh Collection through the MFA's catalog, I decided to test the catalog with the following search terms.  I used the portrait of Pablo Picasso as an example, to try to pinpoint the access points. Picasso is a good choice because the MFA has a large collection of Picasso's works.  Layne (1994) suggests to "provide access to all images for which "Degas" (and in this case "Picasso") is an index term, but in the resulting grouping create one subgrouping for those images in which he is depicted" (p. 586), i.e. the Karsh portrait of Picasso. Here I provide the search terms and results.

Searching the MFA's Home Page search box for Picasso will generate 287 items, all the works by Picasso and the Karsh photos of Picasso.  There is no sub-grouping.  Further investigation of the results is required.

Search ‘photo of picasso’ retrieves an image of picasso’s ‘head of a woman’ in bronze.

Search Picasso and gelatin silver print does not retrieve any results.

Search Karsh Picasso, pinpoints the portrait of Picasso.

Search Picasso portrait brings up portraits by Picasso.

Search Pablo, 327 results, which included the photos of Pablo Casals and Pablo Picasso by Karsh.

Search of the accession number 2002.59 brings a direct hit.

It appears that the title of the photograph is an access point and the creator of the work as well.  

Note: There is no option to search once you reach the Yousuf Karsh Collection page.  Here you are required to browse through the photo carousel.

Item Level Description:

One has to look at the individual photograph to find information on the format or print type (there are 187 gelatin silver prints and 7 chromogenic prints) and the year the photo was taken.   

Other information includes the year the photo was taken; the size of the photograph; the size if one were to purchase a mounted replica; accession number; and the person/s or estate that bestowed the gift.  In this case it was a gift of Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh and the Estate  of Yousuf Karsh.
 

Item level example:

As Ritzewnthaler points out, “accessioning is the activity that documents the incorporation of photographs into a repository’s permanent holdings.” (p. 134).  The accession numbers are 1996.142 – 2002.59.  It appears that the first four numbers are the year of accession followed by a number that relates the order in which that item was accessioned that year.  So, a portrait of Picasso was the 59^th item received in the year 2002.  The order of accession has determined the arrangement of photos in the carousel that is available for quick viewing. 

Does the intellectual arrangement mesh?

Also, upon closer review of the 196 photos, I noticed 5 photos that are of people in work situations.  The "subject" becomes the kind of work they do; the wheat farmer, auto factory workers and farmer with horses.  They are individuals who are identified by the work they do, placed in the element of the work place environment then composed in the elements of a Karsh photo.  They have lost their individuality because they have not distinguished themselves beyond the collective image of the worker.  These photos are interesting and relevant to the student of photography, history and LIS 471.  These photos are of the documentary type taken in times of abundance and fertility during the 1950’s in Canada compared to the photos of despair, lean times, wretchedness and misery taken by the FSA photographers during the 1930’s in the U.S.  

Also, hidden within the collection, there is one photo, titled 'Eskimo Woman'(**note: I couldn't copy this image from the MFA website), who appears to be in a hospital bed.  It is an intriguing photo.  What is the story of this photo?  It has all the elements of a Karsh photo but it hasn't been contextualized.  The woman could be a great poet or storyteller of the Eskimo and with a name well known in Eskimo circles to match the notoriety of Georgia O'Keefe, another Karsh subject.  But because she hasn't been recognized by the Western Cultural Elite then she remains part of her cultural heritage and collective.

Perhaps the MFA is in keeping with the principle of provenance, “which mandates that photographs created, accumulated, and maintained by one entity must be kept and managed together to preserve evidential value. (p. 146 ritzen).”  Still, one might question how some of these photos fit into the collection.  They fall outside the scope of the collection level description.  Should the non-portrait photos be sent to other institutions in order to maintain a consistent intellectual arrangement?  The photos of Ford auto workers could be sent to a Labor Museum in Canada and the photo of the “Eskimo Women” could enhance a collection of Native Americans.  As Ritzen states, “arrangement ensures that the photographs are in a meaningful internal order that helps researchers identify relationships among individual images.” P 145.  Although the settings in which the subjects find themselves in these photos, e.g. the wheat farmer, are different then the portrait photos, they all share common elements of a Karsh photo. I suggest that the MFA could make a brief note of the inclusion of these other Karsh photographs.

Perhaps all these photos belong together because Karsh found enjoyment in photographing "the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yousuf_Karsh 

Notes: 
*All photos retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=photos+of+yousuf+karsh&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb

**One cannot copy photos from the MFA website.

References

Clarke, G. (1997).  The photograph. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Karsh, Y. (1967).  Karsh portfolio. Camden, NJ: Nelson.

 Layne, S. S. (1994). Some issues in the indexing of images.  Journal of the

American Society for Information Science, 45, 583-591.

  

Ritzenthaler, M. L., Vogt-O’Connor, D.,  Zinkham, H.,  Carnell, B.,& Peterson, K. (2006).   Photographs: Archival care and management (4th ed.).
Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists.

Rosenblum, N. (2007, 4^th ed.).  A world history of photography.  New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

           

Yousuf Karsh. (n.d.).  In Wikipedia online.  Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yousuf_Karsh

and the second one....the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection at the BPL...

 The Boston Public Library's Prints and Photographs Department has over 650,000 photographs in its collections, 500,000 of which were obtained from the Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper.  A very small fraction of photos are available for viewing online.  The BPL site distinguishes between 'primary print collections' and 'additional online resources'.  The photo collections, such as the Boston Herald-Traveler collection, listed under 'primary print collections', have a few photos (item-level description includes title, date and photographer) for viewing along with a collection level description.  There are several photo collections listed under 'additional online resources'.  These all have the same format.  


Here is the Collections of the Print Department page, top and bottom:

When you click on the title of the collection, you are brought to a page with the Print Department contact info, the title of the collection and a thumbnail lead-in image of one of the photos of the collection and the number of photos in the collection.  Click on the thumbnail image and you are brought to a page with a slightly enlarged lead-in image and a brief collection level description and several rows of several thumbnail images of the photos in the collection.  Clicking on any image will bring you to an item-level page with its accompanying metadata.


Here is the screenshot of the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection at the BPL:
                

Photos, reading photography, quick dips, ID'ing and more....

Oakland Garden branch of Stony Brook looking out of tunnel, railroad embankment

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

This is the lead in photo of the collection taken 1880-1889.  I couldn't find any reviews of Dorr's work, nor his own views on what his photography meant to him.  So, keeping true to myself, I let my imagination run wild.  It reminded me of the Powerhouse Mechanic photograph taken in 1925 by Lewis Hine.  Here, possibly, we have the engineer in a moment of relaxation from the steady advance of 19th century progress.  Is it Dorr or did Dorr take the photo?  Since Dorr is an engineer there is a possible reference to Leonardo da Vinci's Virtuvian Man. A better title might be Virtuvian Sewer Engineer. 

Powerhouse Mechanic  

1925 

Photo by Lewis Hine

retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hine

Virtuvian Man

circa 1490

by Leonardo da Vinci

retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

Looking further into the collection I found this photo:

Man mortaring sewer wall

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted
Click for a clearer image.

Scope of collection
Here is the link to the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection.
For my second photograph online collection, I decided to investigate the Boston Public Library’s website.  Here I found the ‘Prints and Photographs’ page.  While browsing the various titles of collections, the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection caught my eye because written in parenthesis, under the title, was the following: (photographs of Boston’s sewers).  After indulging in the Karsh collection with its images of the cultural, political, economic, spiritual elite, it seemed that a visit to the gutter was appropriate.   

Clicking on the link to the collection brings me to a page that includes contact information for the Print Department of the Boston Public Library and a thumbnail image of one of Dorr’s photos (see above at the beginning) and a note that the collection has 140 photos.  Clicking on the thumbnail image brings me to the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection page.  There is a brief biography of Edgar Sutton Dorr (1854-1937): he graduated from MIT; married had children; he was the chief engineer of the Boston Sewer Department; and he worked on the Stony Brook, a stream running through Jamaica Plain, Ma.  There is a very good, brief collection level description in which the Boston Public Library’s Print Department (2010), states that the Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection has photographs of his “family and friends, images documenting the Stony Brook improvement and suppression project, as well as additional images reflecting Dorr’s professional interests as an engineer.”  

I think the collection as a whole is documentary photography.  As Ritzenthaler"s (2006) states, "documentary photographs provide evidence that something existed or that a particular event happened" (p. 8).  Rosenblum (2007) adds that, during the nineteenth century, most American photographers endeavored "to present material objects in a clear cut and competent fashion without involvement in the artistic effects of light and shade or unusual compositional angles" (p.163).  Whether photographing family, friends of the Stony Brook development, Dorr gets the necessary subjects in the photograph and he does incorporate the geometry of structures where he can.

A quick dip raises many questions

Dipping into the collection, the Stony Brook improvement project is the subject of most of the photos.  This quick view of the collection raised a lot of intriguing questions?  Did Dorr take up photography as a hobby in the 1880's, a time when hand held cameras were convenient and developing of prints could be done commercially? Did he develop his own work? Or was he one of the amateur photographers who used a Kodak, starting in 1888? Were the photos taken for Dorr's own enjoyment and memories and pride in the work that he accomplished as an engineer on the Stony Brook project?  Was Dorr familiar with the photography of Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbot, Bill Brandt, Alice Austen or Robert French?  

Print identification
I would like to view the collection in person to make my own assessment of the type of photographic print. Using the Graphics Atlas (2013), the 1880-1889 prints could be from albumen prints because of the characteristic yellowing of highlights.  Also, silver gelatin DOPs, in particular those of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1890-1929), can be identified by their forms of deterioration, such as yellowing and loss of highlight detail.  

Note on quality of images

I have enlarged the following photographs as much as I could without losing too much detail.  As I will discuss later, the digital images lost clarity in copying and enlarging from a thumbnail image to the blog.

Photos of the Stony Brook Improvement Project

Unaltered section of stream

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

 

Partially exposed section of water running through the park

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

 

Stony Brook sec. 7, December 15, 1889

1889-12-15

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Man Standing in Unfinished Sewer

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Men and worker standing in divided sewer

1880-1889 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Stony Brook Arch, Forest Hill

1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Split Sewer

1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted



Photos of Dorr's interests

Wright rubber bricks on Mich. Ave. Blvd. Chicago, Ill.
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted
Note: Click for a clearer image.  
This photo a more artistic look similar to photographs by Berenice Abbot.

Sailboat on water
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted


***Photos of family, friends, & colleagues of Edgar Sutton Dorr

Portrait of woman
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Women and children
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Group portrait of men and women
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Banquet
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Group portrait of men in front of building
1890-1929 (approximate)

Edgar Sutton Dorr Collection

Photograph type unlisted

Critique of the Online Collection:
Accession, cataloging, metadata, etc.

I have found that some photos are listed with a date of 1890-1929 (approximate) and some with a date of 1880-1889 (approximate); have a physical description of being a photographic print; and do not list the photographer’s name.  It is unclear what role Dorr played in the accumulation, creation and maintenance of the collection.  The dating of some photographs might be based on the following information.  Dorr started work for the Boston Sewer Department in 1891 and its possible that he retired in 1929.  But some of the Stony Brook photos are dated in the 1880-1889 range.  Did Dorr take photos before he was retired or are these photos that Dorr accumulated?  Only one individual is identified in one of the photos and that is Kenneth Morse Rogers, 17 months.  The ‘genre’ is ‘photographic prints’.   

Item level example in two parts, top of page followed by bottom:

For many of the photos, the cataloger is credited with the title.  Ritzenthaler (2006) suggests that ‘when devising titles for documentary material, give the factual content as far as possible (e.g., who, what where, when). Many photographs can share the same title” (p.173).  Most titles in this collection lack the where and when.

Also, Ritzenthaler (2006) mentions that "users are interested in publication rights status, availability to reproduce (quick copies) and alternate viewing formats" (p.176).  The notes in the Dorr collection only mention that the rights status has not been evaluated. 

There is a 'file name' or number in the item-level description that probably relates to the accession of the photograph.  The file name looks like this - 10_11_000083.  All the files have 10_11_.  The other six digits probably have to do with the order of accession.

The user is informed of the date that the archive photo was taken, August 11, 2010 and the type of digital camera used, a Sinar AG Sinarback 54 FW, Sinar m.  The images that are available to view do not have a high resolution.  Its unclear if that is due to the digital camera or a scanning device of the digitized image, or if they are one in the same.  This will require further investigation into the technology that is used to manifest the original image in the web format.

As far as investigating the digitized photo using zoom tools, it is not easy to zoom in and capture more details that might help contextualize the photo.  Natanson (2007) demonstrated the value of high resolution scans with her example of the photo of the 8 year old Syrian girl sardine cutter.  The original photo didn’t show the details of the girl’s cut hand and blood, which was revealed through zooming in on the digitized image.

A good feature of the online collection, is that the BPL posts this collection on Flickr, which allows tagging.  This is aids in research as Natanson (2007) points out that the ‘internet creates the potential to add value to primary source materials by gathering and linking the knowledge of many people with those sources” (p. 104).  The overall collection will benefit from further collaboration in the contextualization of individual photographs.

The downside of using flickr for postig the images is the difficulty of searching for images in the collection.  You need to know the exact title of the image to find it in the results of that particular search.  For example, I searched for stony brook and produced results of images from Stony Brook, NY.

Overall, its great to have this collection available online in digital form.  I probably would have never come across it.  The images are relevant and timely in light of the Muddy River suppression project that is going on in the Fens.


Notes:
*** It is unclear the exact relationships of the subjects to Dorr because none of the photos identify family members, friends or colleagues.

References

Boston Public Library, Print Dept., 2011.  Edgar Sutton Door Photograph Collection.  Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157624703666440/with/4882926454/

Image Permanence Institute (2013). Graphics Atlas: Identification.
Retrieved from http://www.graphicsatlas.
org/identification/?process_id=125

Natanson, B. O. (2007).  Worth a billion Words? Journal of American History, 94, 99-111.

Ritzenthaler, M. L., Vogt-O’Connor, D.,  Zinkham, H.,  Carnell, B.,& Peterson, K. (2006).   Photographs: Archival care and management (4th ed.).
Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists. 

Rosenblum, N. (2007, 4^th ed.).  A world history of photography.  New York, NY: Abbeville Press.