Tableaux

Tableaux include photographs, paintings, prints, diagrams, other visual compositions. An author selects framing and medium. A viewer interprets the result through available context. Staff record authorship, subjects where appropriate, material instance, reproduction, exhibition, contributed accounts.

A portrait made with the deposited camera can enter the collection as a print. Its biography begins with that making, the participants' agreements, later placement. A digital file and several prints require distinct descriptions when differences in material handling or circulation matter. A viewer can ask about an excluded part of the scene or contribute a competing interpretation.

The author and subject may hold different permissions concerning display or publication. Staff address those decisions through contribution rights. New objects produced during encounters explains the transition from activity to a further holding. A diagram receives the same attention to authorship and interpretation while serving a particular explanatory purpose.