By part-time photo archive assistant Zade Williamson.
When I was asked to return to the Wittliff this Summer for a project, the answer was an immediate yes. I had previously interned at the Wittliff as a student and was excited to return for the task of rehousing and creating a preliminary inventory of archival materials from Texas photographer Keith Carter. This project was my first introduction to a collection of its size. Upon first seeing the task that lay ahead, the sea of boxes looked something more akin to the move into my first apartment than a collection of paper and images.
Going through the collection gave me a lot of time to become acquainted with the photographer to whom I would be devoting my time to over the next several months. I resolved that I had several goals with this project, with the ultimate objective of having an orderly catalog of files that can be found quickly. The process essentially transforms an object from the artist’s possession into boxes and corresponding data in a public archive, accessible to researchers who will investigate, record, and publish, reinforcing the historic and cultural value of the work. The archive provides the most significant information to research, much of this being predicated on ease of access to the material.
As I progressed with an objective in mind, I had to continually adjust my method of approaching a collection of such magnitude. I recognized that in many ways data that feels objective can be subject to a great deal of bias. I consistently had to ask myself what I should record. What is to be made note of? What can be omitted? The solution I arrived at in making these decisions relied on the collection itself. I recognized that I would have to examine the contents as a whole to contextualize pieces in relation to each other, and record information on that basis.
This collection felt highly personal. Vintage newspaper clippings and guide prints with corrections handwritten on them wore the signs of age and use going back decades. Many pieces did not feel as polished as those seen under glass in a gallery, the files were meant for those who interacted with them, namely Keith Carter himself and his wife, Patricia Carter. Family snapshots and ephemera in the collection stood out to me for their importance in framing the archive. The personal items and images as well as the written-on contact sheets were one of my favorite parts of the collection. Their presence provided a glimpse into Carter’s thought process, background, and inspirations. It was exciting to discover connections in his published photographs with the personal pieces contained in the archive.
When starting to process the collection I had not considered the relationship I would have with Carter, someone I began to know increasingly well on paper, but did not know me. This one-way mirror stood out to me in my first experience with a large collection and made me consider the relationship of the archivist and the artist, one developed out of a duty to preserve their work and memory. As the person tasked with going over each piece of the archive, I worked to record the relationships of each seemingly disparate object throughout the collection so that others can make those connections as well. Simplifying the process of accessing this information has allowed me to play a role in the history of Carter’s work and has left me with a sense of satisfaction for what I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of.