This project originated from my eight-month experience exploring the Image File at the Los Angeles Central Library. At first the Image File seems easy to define: a collection of images from magazines, newspapers and books (about 250,000), amassed between 1930 and 1970, sitting in large metal cabinets, available for check out by Library patrons. But there is a certain liminal quality to the picture file, as the file is more than just a simple collection, but there isn’t enough primary source material to make it an archive. The images are falling apart, decaying. Often images move around in the collection, bleeding into other files, moving gradually toward an entropic state. The file is public domain (whether the images themselves are or not), but every image has been altered in some way to indicate that it is the property of the library. I used to think that the images lacked context, as generally there isn’t much information about them included. But upon showing them to other people, they became these mnemonic devices for personal or collective memory/history.
The images are organized linguistically; a file is labeled with a single word and that word organizes all of the images in the file. This system of organization has been my point of interest in the Picture File, mainly because of its inadequacy. The act of applying language to images is inherently an act of limitation. In this project I want to propose a new system of organization for the Image File.
During my work at the library, I’ve been combing through the files and curating images of interest and scanning them, creating a large digital collection. From this collection I’ve then organized the images into a black and white wallpaper.
