Mining Photographs: Unearthing the Meanings of Historical Photos.

[The Author final statement: ]
To use photographs simply as illustrations is to leave out a valuable and rich possibility. Instead, we might employ them in a method of enrichment, a process of cross reference aiding comprehension of both the epoch and the photograph. At first we hold the image and the context far apart, studying each for its unique features. But through procedures of cross reference, we may come to understand the movement that originally brought them together in the world, the force that made the photograph a product of a particular time and place. In discovering the actual and unique circumstances of the photograph, we come to a deeper and clearer understanding of the era; in broadly comprehending the era, we determine a more precise meaning for the image. The photograph thus becomes rich in significations that go far beyond simple illustration.