The digital archive I chose to examine is the Walter E. Bennett Photographic Collection. It consists of news photographs that Bennett took during the 60s, 70s, and 80s during the time he was employed as Time magazine’s first paid photojournalist. While it is a small collection of only 79 images, it focuses on many of the cultural phenomenons of the time, from political figures like the Kennedys to anti-war demonstrations to The Beatles.
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz00011f8m
If I were trying to write a paper on this archive, I would be able to tell a lot about the values of Time magazine and about the photojournalistic styles of the era. The site also gives a very general overarching framework of some of the major historical events and eras of that time using these original images that document and can give great insight on what many of these events were really like.
However, there are several shortcomings in this archive that would definitely hinder anyone who was trying to base a research paper off of it. For one, there aren’t many photographs, and so there are typically only a couple frames from any given event featured in the archive. It would be very difficult to write on any singular event using only this archive because of that. Additionally, there is limited information given on each photograph, usually no more than a sentence or two saying who and what it features and where and when it was taken. If I wanted to write about Bennett himself as a photographer, there is also a serious lack of biographical information about the man behind the camera. To be fair, this archive probably does not intend to be the only source on which a paper is based, but is more intended for single photos to be used as primary sources within a larger project drawing from several different archives.
If I were to work on the archive I would add more of Bennett’s photos and add a greater and more detailed description of each shot. I would also organize the photos by event and give some context in which they took place so that whoever was viewing the site would get a more comprehensive understanding of the photos. Also, I would have a section detailing Bennett’s work and experience as a photojournalist for Time. These additions would really flesh out the archive and make it much easier and more informational for any research purposes.