Article

Name: On the experience of archiving the photo collection of Vladimir Tikhonovich Novikov

Authors: V. A. Goncharova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Архивы

Abstract:

Photographic archives are indispensable resources in folkloristic and ethnographic research, offering crucial visual documentation of cultural practices and social life that enriches textual and audio records. The Department of Folklore of Peoples of Siberia of the Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences holds a significant photographic collection donated by the noted photojournalist V. T. Novikov. This collection represents a thorough visual account of regional traditions, requiring methodical archival management for preservation and research facilitation. This paper investigates the archival efforts of the Department regarding the Novikov’s collection, providing a comprehensive visual anthropological analysis of his photography for the first time. Efforts are made to analyze the challenges associated with the registration, description, and cataloging of these photographic documents according to contemporary archival principles and discuss the multifaceted role of the collection in academic research and broader public engagement. A complex approach is employed, encompassing a visual anthropological framework for image analysis and evaluation, a analysis of archival processes related to photographic documents, and an account of the applied archival research on the collection conducted by the author. Emphasis is placed on the critical importance of developing and implementing dedicated archival strategies for visual ethnographic materials to ensure their long-term utility. The research confirms the substantial cultural heritage importance of the photographic collection under study, contributing to both the theoretical and practical understanding of specialized and departmental photographic archive management within humanities scholarship.

Keywords: folklore archiving, Vladimir Tikhonovich Novikov, photographic collection, image database, folkloric-ethnographic expeditions, fieldwork materials, personal archive, visual anthropology

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