Geoff Schmalz 10th blog The Weather and a Place to Live

For my tenth blog I will discuss Weather and a Place to Live: Photographs of the Suburban West, a digital exhibit at Duke University which can be accessed from

http://cds.aas.duke.edu/exhibits/multimedia.html#

Selection Procedure: Sixteen images were chosen to try to show the effects of weather on the suburbs of the American West. They were chosen with the following quote in mind from the book Four Good Things by James McMichael: "They all made up a neighborhood, were part of that difference from house to house that showed most clearly in the mornings when the light canted around the mountain, lifted, stayed...What they'd been selling was the weather and a place to live and that was what was left."

Image Characteristics: The images are large, filling the entire page, and they are all in black and white. I believe the fact that the pictures are black and white lends them more power than color images would have had. The images have no enlarge link because they are already full page. It does not appear the images can be purchased as no mention of that possibility exists. The image from North Odgen Utah is particularly exciting because it shows a mobile home next to a house which is parked on what looks like 10 to 15 feet of rocks, likely weathered from the mountains behind the house. Because the images utilize Flashplayer they can be zoomed into and out of by right clicking on each picture.

Metadata: The metadata accompanying the gallery is quite limited. It does mention the location of each image and the year the image was taken as in this example from the sixth image :North Odgen, Utah, 1999. Also, above each image is the title of the Gallery: The Weather and a Place to Live. Above each image is found a close link for each picture as well.

Intended Audience: Anyone who is intrigued by the unique character of the American western landscape will enjoy this selection of sixteen pictures. People, who like me, enjoy the drama black and white images possess that color images do not, form another possible patronage for the gallery. This gallery is emblematic of the fact that a digitization project need not include a large number of images to be powerful and to communicate to web visitors in a way that words could never accomplish.