Visual Materials Bibliography

This bibliography was created in the 1980s by Richard Pearce-Moses as an informal resource for archivists working primarily with photographic archives and was kept on his private website until its ‘donation’ to the Visual Materials Section around 1999. Although traditional photography is its core, the Section has added other types of visual materials and expanded some areas. Since then, it has received updates including entries appearing in Views newsletters 1985-2002 and from individual submissions. Because there are many bibliographies relating to visual materials, this work can’t possibly be all-inclusive and answer every researcher’s need.

Monographs on individual photographers, for example, are not included. Rather, this is a list of sources VM Section members felt were useful in archives work. Research changes over time, and some of the entries offered here may be out of date but still considered valuable for historical perspective. A growing list of websites is included at the end of the formal bibliography but are highly selective on account of the transitory nature of online information. Occasionally they are referenced in the larger bibliography.

The Section intends this to be a living document to be revised and expanded on a yearly basis to be undertaken by a new working group as VMS steering committee members change.