Photographic document as image archival document

This work aims to discuss how photographic document's specificity needs particular attention when those materials are integrated into an archive. For that, we propose to initially discuss the primary aspects that define an archival document to further on typify contemporary archives and how photographic materials began to be integrated by those institutions. That issue requires a reflection about the relations between photographic image representation and archival documentary authenticity; and between photographic image representation and the alleged "veracity" of the photographic information. The clarification of the problems posed by that discussion achieves the existent contrast between the two main organization models for photographic pictures in archives: by issue topics (of librarian inspiration and greater use) and by context (more adequate to archives). The archival contextualization arises, many times, as the only alternative for the comprehension of dubious images, images with illusion effects, or with extremely generic information. Finally, we present examples of archival organization for the three types of archival photographic materials occurrences: photographic pictures integrated to other documents (e.g. in a dossier); isolated photographic pictures as a final result of an action (e.g. pictures of a public agency’s communication office); as well as photographic pictures gathered as a collection, without any organic relation to an administrative producer. We conclude that archival principles, mainly in the case of photographic picture in archives, are most of the times the only guarantee to a correct comprehension of documents’ meaning.