The photographs shown here were made in the archive at the Visual
Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. The series began in October of
2007 and is very much a work-in-progress. This series is an outgrowth of
my work since 2003 which primarily involves books and the accretion of
information built up within them, including readers' marginalia,
art reproductions, and markings or notations made by librarians or
library workers. While the earlier work dealt with individual or small
groups of books this project looks at the archive itself--not only the
objects contained within it but the ... whole system or apparatus that
enables such artifacts to exist. (1)
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The Visual Studies Worshop was founded in 1969 and--I assume--began
assembling the archive shortly thereafter. It is a rich and highly
diverse collection including the archives of prominent (and not so
prominent) photographers; one of the finest collections of artists books
to be found anywhere; a vast library of books covering all aspects of
the visual arts, as well as history and theory; an extensive periodical
collection; writings and recordings (in every possible format) of
well-known photographers, book artists, photographic (and other)
educators, and historians; and an incredible collection of vernacular
photography and other objects. (2) I had spent five years in this
archive researching material for a book project before its visual
possibilities became apparent; given the richness of its contents it may
take another five years to complete.
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Examples of other projects can be seen on my website:
dougmancheeprojects.com
(1) Bate, David, "The Archaeology of Photography: Rereading
Michel Foucault and The Archaeology of Knowledge," published in
Afterimage, Vol. 35, no. 3 (November/December 2007).
(2) For an example see Chris Burnett's "The Streets of
San Francisco: Encounters with the Selle Collection of Street Vendor
Photographs," published in Afterimage, Vol. 35, no. 3
(November/December 2007).
COPYRIGHT 2008 Visual Studies
Workshop Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.