Road Trip to the Past: Finding a Setting Through Photography

Abstract

Writers regularly use photography for their research, but this fact is rarely talked about. They go to locations to take their own pictures, or they find them in books and archives; the use of photography is a visceral form of note-taking. While theorists such as Sontag, Foucault and Rose consider why the picture is worth much more than a thousand words, writers exploit the fact. But what if that picture was taken 130 years ago? The writer may have to take into consideration the distances, both chronologically and culturally, that have developed since. As research for a novel that takes place in 1880, I have compiled an archive of historical photographs that help me visualize my story. If I go on a search for the places these pictures were taken 130 years ago, what will I find?