Photography as Information Design

Photography as Information Design

by John Barclay-Morton

On Thursday October 17, 2019, I attended Digital Transition's Annual East Coast Round Table on Cultural Heritage, held at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Here, I learned quite a bit about current and emerging best practices in the field of image capture as it pertains to museums and other institution dedicated to preserving aspects of cultural heritage.

I was at first quite surprised when I realized that the “best practices” being outlined were very much in line with the approaches that Kim Baer promotes in the text “Information Design Workbook”. With this in mind, I would like to focus for the moment upon and explore a specific research context that I will call “photography as information design”.

One “best practice” that Baer promotes is using an alphanumeric system for tracking project components: “An alphanumeric system is a simple way to effectively communicate with the team about assorted pieces of content over the long course of a complicated project…Things like nomenclature changes or changes in content are much easier to track and are much less confusing with the numbering system in place (Baer, 39).”

Accurate documentation was a keynote point conveyed by Michael Overgard and Anna Levine from University of Pennsylvania Libraries, who presented an overview for "Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis: Digitization Medieval Manuscripts from Fifteen Philadelphia-area Institutions”. In addition to recording standard metadata (data of capture, author, equipment, lighting, etc.) for the imaging they undertook, they also meticulously recorded structural metadata, in the form of spreadsheets with metadata about the components of the pieces being imaged (to provide preliminary and ongoing identification of the objects); and collation metadata (dates, times, information about the assemblage of objects and their disassembly for imaging). All of this proved very useful for identifying and reuniting previously scattered fragments of manuscripts, and provided researchers with a wealth of information with which to study and compare the digitized manuscripts once they were placed online.

Compiling such accurate metadata during the project also allowed researchers to go back afterward and compare the originals with their captures. This quickly revealed any gaps in the captures, and allowed for missing materials to be quickly identified and reshot.

In a way, such collections of metadata served as a “design brief” for the project, but with one important difference: during this project, metadata was being actively acquired and compiled in an ongoing fashion, adding to the information that could be shared as the project neared completion. Baer notes that “(the design brief) outlines the pertinent information about the project so that the entire team has a clear sense of the project’s background and goals (Baer, 50).” When considering photography as a case study in information design, the possibility of adding to the basic design brief in an ongoing manner — in this case, adding to the metadata accumulating with reference to the objects being photographed — emerges as a powerful tool that generates information in the course of applying design best practices. This metadata proved to be extremely useful to later researchers who undertook to contrast and compare different manuscripts using the digitized versions that had been produced.

Charles Walbridge from the Minneapolis Institute of Art presented on the topic "Photogrammetry for ‘flat’ art objects”. This presentation examined how techniques used for imaging objects in three dimensional space (such as statues) could also be applied to flat, but highly textured surfaces (such as any painting by Vincent Van Gogh). The basic approach used here is to “visualize the underlying surface without the color information” — an approach similar in intent to the creation of a sitemap for an information design project:

“A sitemap or similar flowchart outlining all project components is one of the first documents you may need, and it should be created long before visual design begins.

“Basically, the sitemap (or a similar overview map if you’re working on something other than a website) should give a visual outline of all the components and informational elements of the project (Baer, 64)”.

Walbridge’s methodology is an interesting one, in that two degrees of image capture are utilized. A wide-angle survey of the object being imaged provides a record of the surface textures; and a close-field series of image captures from different angles (using variable lighting) provides information on the physical structure of the surface being photographed. By separating texture from structure, the topology of the surface becomes more readily apparent; and this yields a “depth map” of the surface, the end result of which is somewhat akin to the relationship holding between a sitemap and what is called a “wireframe”:

“While a sitemap or structural overview provides a birds-eye view, wireframes flesh out the finer details of a complex project (Baer, 71)”.

Baer goes on to examine and stress the vital importance of design testing, to determine user responses. Interestingly, with Walbridge’s work enough data is collected to facilitate digital programs that can “change simulated light sources using environmental maps” — such large amounts of information are captured that they can then be selectively utilized for specific purposes. This aspect of photography considered as information design presents an interesting possibility that seems to be more or less overlooked in established approaches — that of environmental variance influencing design functionality, over and above the differences presented through varying users during the testing of designs. 

Such a consideration might lead us to the last presentation of the conference: Tahnee Cracchiola from The Getty Museum and Kevin Candland from The Asian Art Museum speaking on ”The Fine Art of Documentation: Rethinking Object Photography of Cultural Heritage”.

In many ways, this presentation was closest in its considerations to those which weigh upon information design. A great deal of emphasis was placed upon consultation; in this case, with the curators who best knew the objects which were to be photographed. The presenters were of the opinion that, “Every object has a story, and we are the storytellers”; and to this end, they found themselves asking “What is the narrative of a three dimensional object — how can light and shadow be used to tell shape stories?”

The traditional approach in object photography for cultural heritage purposes has always been to evenly illuminate such objects, to give the most visually uniform presentation possible. However, Cracchiola and Candland have realized that the visual footprint of images is often the first exposure that audiences will have to the items being displayed in a museum — and that first impressions matter. From this realization, a “Fine Art” approach to photo documentation was developed, with photographs of cultural heritage objects being created in accordance with the creative vision of the cameraperson. This approach is at first glance the resolution of very similar issues raised by Baer in Chapter Four of the “Information Design Workbook” — the “Design Toolkit”; but, there is a very important and subtle point in this “Fine Art” approach that might easily be overlooked within Information Design: that photography as information design is always presenting something that exists tangibly, for which there is an expectation of accurate correspondence. 

With information design, there is always a possibility that the design will highlight the information to the detriment of attention more properly directed toward the situations from which the information has been derived. Were this to happen with photography as information design, that would very much constitute a failure of the design itself. In contrast, skilled photography of cultural artifacts artfully accomplished can actually be repurposed as lighting maps, and used by curators to guide their display set-ups; and such photography, done well, will often take on a life of its own in the form of event posters, banners, guide books and academic publications. In this way, photography as information design illustrates a principle we considered earlier, in the context of Charles Walbridge’s work: the possibility of design functionality traversing between multiple environmental contexts of occurrence.

One very important insight that photography as information design can provide us with, then, is an understanding of the role that design can play in guiding us toward whatever situation the information involved is meant to convey. Great design embodies a degree of transparency that never obscures that which it is meant to communicate; and this is why it is said that good design never goes out of style. 

Thus, photography as information design presents us with another important insight as to the pure utility of good information design: in leading us directly toward the situations from the information utilized was derived, such an approach to information design facilitates the collection of further information by those who are using the design work created in the course of making the initial information more accessible to others. As with “The Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis Project”, additional metadata could always be accumulated and added in by those who are party to an exemplary work of information design — if this possibility is first acknowledged and added into a project’s design, beyond what would otherwise be instituted through initial design strategies such as wire-framing and user testing.    

Works Cited:

Baer, Kim., and Vacarra, Jill. Information Design Workbook Graphic Approaches, Solutions, and Inspiration + 30 Case Studies . Beverly, Mass: Rockport, 2008.