Thomas Carr - Archaeologist,
Colorado Historical Society, Denver.
Archaeology and the visual arts have a great deal in common.
Archaeologists use still and motion picture photography
to document their sites, and photographers and filmmakers
use archaeological sites and artifacts as artistic and documentary
subjects. Both archaeologists and visual artists work in
a highly investigative fashion-dealing with the extraction
of fragments of detail from the whole of their environments.
What many people don't realize is that archaeology, photography,
and film share interwoven histories. This presentation is
a review of those histories, as well as a discussion of
how contemporary archaeological researchers can more effective
synthesize artistic and scientific representation into their
visual images of the sites they study. This includes both
still and motion-picture mediums for professional and public
audiences. The author is a North American archaeologist
with training and experience in photography and film. The
case study for this presentation concerns the author's efforts
to effectively integrate photography and documentary film
into the study of historical archaeology sites in the Piedmont
area of North Carolina. An ethnohistoric documentary film
titled A Forgotten Place, produced and directed
by the author, is being screened at the Festival. This presentation
will address various aspects of the research and production
for that film as well as a historical perspective on the
topic.
