Exploring Community Memory and Multiple Understandings of Landscape: Activating the Collections of the UCLA Department of Geography Air Photo Archives

Abstract

AbstractApplying archival theories and advocating for interdisciplinary approaches to public outreach and historical resource access, this article explores the multiple contexts embodied in the oblique aerial photographs at the UCLA Department of Geography Air Photo Archives. The author proposes a series of illustrated presentations that would expose these photographs to a wider audience, emphasizing the photographs’ research value as historical artifacts and as sites of communal memory sharing. The goal of the project is to engage the cultural context of the photographs’ creation as well as “activate” their content to inspire dialogue about how we build, perceive, and conduct our lives in the physical landscape.[This article is a revision of the paper that won the 2017 Gerd Muehsam Award. The award recognizes excellence in a paper written by a graduate student on a topic relevant to art librarianship or visual resources curatorship. This paper was presented as part of the “New Voices in the Profession” p...