Carol Highsmith's archive dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright-free access

Explore the reaches of Carol Highsmith's archive as she discusses her work and her motivation for dedicating the rights to the American people for copyright-free access.

>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

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>> And we are thrilled that you could join us for our first Library of Congress online conference for educators. We have a great lineup for the entire program, but we are super proud to show off with our keynote speaker, Carol Highsmith. I'm going to turn the program over to the Director of Education Outreach, Lee Ann Potter, and she's going to introduce our very special guest to you. 

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>> Thanks Kathy. I really am delighted to be here as well and tickled that all of you are joining us. Thrilled to be introducing two of our guests this evening. The first is Carol Highsmith. Carol is a distinguished and richly published American photographer. She has donated her work to the Library of Congress since 1992. Starting in 2002, Highsmith provided scans or photographs that she shot digitally with new donations to allow rapid online access throughout the world. If you have poked around the library's website at any length and stumbled across some really extraordinary photography in recent years, you are certainly familiar with Carol's work. Joining Carol is Helena Zinkham. Helena is the chief of the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. Helene joined the Library Prints and Photographs Division in 1984. She fell in love with pictures while working at the Maryland Historical Society in 1977, and to this day, enjoys helping people discover the rich resources in public collections of the library. We are thrilled to have both of you with us tonight and tickled that all of you are here and looking forward to an outstanding session. Thank you.

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>> Thank you Lee Ann. Great pleasure on my part to be getting ready to meet everyone and host this conversation. The keynote session for the online conference Library of Congress and teachers, unlike in the [inaudible] primary resources, it offers all of us the opportunity to learn from and talk with a prolific creator of primary visual sources. And so the theme for this afternoon will be preserving our communities with photography. I probably should have mentioned that my voice is Helena Zinkham. We'll meet Carol in just a moment. I will ask the obvious questions on your behalf, starting with how Carol became interested in photography, her historical mentor, how she fell in love with the Library of Congress by photographing our magnificent Jefferson Building in Washington D.C. And then, how her daily life work documenting historic buildings evolved into a magnificent vision. And she launched her journey to act on her dream and create a visual profile of all 50 states and territories throughout our country. And that's where we'll spend most of our time. How Carol captures the essence of communities, how an extraordinary body of primary sources is being created that you can use and reuse right now. It's copyright-free and all online at the Library of Congress. We're going to take a look at several states, then travel with Carol through Alabama, followed by vanishing America, communities as people, and the beauties in the natural environment. There's time at the end for your questions, of course. You can quiz Carol about the tools of her trade or ask anything else you're interested in about using her archive or perhaps even photographing your own communities with students. And I'm going to switch to our first slide now. And naturally enough, get ready to say all aboard. Are you ready to ride? I'll turn it over to Carol, who can give us a quick hello. 

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>> Hi Helena. Thank you so much. I'm honored and so excited to be included in this landmark webinar. You know, until I took up photography in my 30s, I had barely picked up a camera. It was just that my dad was always taking photographs of us, so I think subconsciously I was aware of photography. I wasn't really a serious student, but when I started in the world of work, all of a sudden I became very serious. And I put myself through school working in the broadcasting industry. And one day I won a trip to Russia and also China. Well, it's kind of hard to go to those places, especially when I went, and not take really kind of amazing photographs. And so when I got back I thought, you know, I like photography. This is interesting. So I took some photography courses, and one day on a class assignment, I took a friend into the Willard Hotel. Now the Willard Hotel used to be grand. It was a hotel of presidents. It was only two blocks from the White House. But when I went in there, it was just a rat trap. It was a mess. As a matter of fact, there were rats the size of cats running around in the halls. Thank goodness the Willard Hotel was saved, and I was asked if I would like to photograph the whole restoration. One day I noticed this man was walking through with a whole mitt full of photographs, and I said to him, what's this? What do you have? And he said well you know, there were no architectural drawings for this grand hotel, so we used photographs to put it back together again. And he told me about this woman, Frances Benjamin Johnston who had worked in the Willard during 1901. And he told me that Frances had donated, had given away her life's collections of photographs to the Library of Congress. Well I was, my interest was piqued. He invited me down to the library with him, and I actually went down and saw this collection. And what she had done was produced tens of thousands of images on her big heavy, bulky eight by ten camera all over America. Starting with photographs of four sitting presidents and their families, and then photographs of southern mansions produced with a Carnegie Foundation grant. And then photographs of African-American schools and poor, white mining communities and American Indian families. Okay, I was interested. Realizing, and this is by the way a photograph that I had taken in the Willard Hotel back in 1980. Realizing that this woman had done, what she had done for me was life-changing. I told the curators of the Library of Congress the day I went down to see her collection that I would like to photograph, that I would like to follow in her footsteps. That I would like to document America too and give my work to the Library of Congress as well. Well I think they thought I was a little nutty, but anyway, that was the beginning of my interest in following Francis Benjamin Johnston. 

>> Carol, this is Helena. We're going to load up just a few portraits of your mentor, your historical mentor, Miss Johnston so that everyone can enjoy the size of her camera relative to our cellphone photography today. But it sure looks like the Willard Hotel turned out fine. The restoration. 

>> It was gorgeous. It was gorgeous.

>> About how many photographs would you take in a building that size?

>> Well, you know.

>> Do you remember?

>> Interesting. I was also trying to follow her in every way, so I was also working with a bulky four by five camera. Four inch by five inch film, which was very slow. And also, when you take interiors like this, you have to light them correctly. So this might have taken five hours just to light this. So it wasn't, I maybe took during the, I think I was in there four years, maybe 500 to 1000 to 1500 images in the Willard Hotel. But it wasn't like the type of images I take today on digital photography. 

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>> Alright Carol. While we wait for those next photos to come up, I mentioned that you, well, you've been very complementary to the Library of Congress, and I appreciate that. What we'll move on to, oh, it looks like they're coming up now.

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>> Anyway, while we're waiting, let me continue to just chat about how [inaudible] Francis Benjamin Johnston's work was and still is. Well this is a photograph of her. And you see how huge that camera is. I mean, how did she carry it around? I have no idea. 

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Let me talk about the Library of Congress also. My dream of traveling America, leaving a mark behind as Francis Benjamin Johnston had done, was also made fortunate, possible by a number of fortunate things that happened to me. People at the Library of Congress believed in me and also kind of took me under their wing, which was amazingly helpful. They were interested in my Willard Hotel experience and my photographs, and as I continued to document Pennsylvania Avenue, they also were interested and decided they wanted those images too. So it was very helpful that the Library of Congress felt that this was as valuable to have images in their collection of current-day events, as valuable as what Francis Benjamin Johnston had done during her lifetime at the turn of the last century. Look at these magnificent images. This, for instance, was a slide, a black and white slide that she colored. Look at these beautiful children. She did school children. She loved school children. So this was, you know, I look at this and I just get chill bumps looking at these images and how beautiful they are. And remember they're on large eight by ten film negatives. Look at this salt mine. I was just in an exhibition mine in West Virginia the other day. And all I could think about was what it was like for Francis to go in these old mines back when she went in with her eight by ten camera. And these beautiful, beautiful historic scenes of outbuildings of plantations that Carnegie sent her down to do all of the south. And many, many of these buildings are gone now. I know. I've tried to replicate some. And look at this. You can see this one's almost gone. Thank goodness that Francis Benjamin Johnston recorded these. Thank goodness she recorded them. And see, now, she moved on in age. But she worked almost all the way to the end. She lived in New Orleans during her 80s. And believe it or not, she is buried about ten minutes from where I live now in Washington D.C.

>> Carol, this is Helena again. You should also tell them about Miss Johnston's sense of humor. In her 80s she called herself the octo-geranium, a woman of great energy.

>> She was a character and a half. She really was. But, you know, we should be indebted to her for all she did for the United States, capturing our history the way she did. It just changed my life. It really did. And seeing these images, I decided that I should follow in her footsteps. You know, it's interesting, I could never do what she did because much of it's gone. But she couldn't do what I've done. I photograph Washington [inaudible] places from the air. I do aerials. I carry around a camera that's lighter than what she lugged around. So now this is the Library of Congress. I was very fortunate that the Library of Congress, library staff, allowed me to go into the iconic Thomas Jefferson Building. It was such an experience for me to go in, and it had never really been photographed correctly because, I was able to go up on scaffolding and on gurneys and get high up and show the art. Because my cameras were lighter and smaller, and not the bulky eight by ten camera that Francis Benjamin Johnston had used. I was able to take in lighting that was smaller and lighter. And so this beautiful building was captured in a way that it had never been captured before. And I'm just thrilled, I was thrilled for the opportunity. And it was just at the time that digital photography was starting to really make its mark. So at the time I photographed the Library of Congress I was using a digital camera that it was actually 39 megapixels. Now most digital cameras were maybe 5, 10 maybe at the most at that time. And I was on 39. So we were able to really capture with fine quality. The cameras that I use today are actually double that amount. I'm working with the largest megapixel camera made. That it, in the commercial realm anyway. And so the quality is just eye-popping almost. So it's really an adventure for me to be able to work with these fine tools. But because I was able to photograph the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, I learned so much about photography and digital photography at that time. 

>> Carol, I've also enjoyed talking with you about how you've branched out from the library to many, many community public libraries. One of the great symbols throughout our John Adams building was actually the owl. I hope is a sign of wisdom. And [inaudible] we were looking at her mosaic earlier. But here we have the Frederick County Public Library. And talk just a little bit about how you find libraries in different communities in the country.

>> You know, because the Library of Congress, the staff, and you of course, are so interested in me capturing small towns, and every town that I can possibly get to. There always seems to be a sign to the library. And I always try to go there because our libraries are so varied and interesting. Everything from, of course, the Library of Congress and the magnificent Thomas Jefferson Building, to what they have now, which are little teeny weeny libraries that if you walk in a neighborhood, a lot of times you can see these little, you know, birdhouse almost libraries. Where people just go and put books that they've read, and then you can take them and add books that you've read. So it's so fun. But also, the other thing about libraries that I love, and remember I've seen them all over the United States, is that oftentimes it's where people go to get on computers. It's more than just books now, which is wonderful. It's a community gathering spot. And I've seen, you know, buildings, old store buildings that have become libraries. I've seen how towns have adjusted their, you know, their downtowns to what fits the community. And of course, everybody loves a library. Everybody does. 

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>> Carol, we're going to talk next about what you've been doing, not just since the days of Willard and individual buildings at the Library of Congress. Oh this is a great picture. So everyone, that's Carol Highsmith today, ready for her 50th high school reunion, believe it or not. And California was certainly one of the states Carol traversed many months, up and down coast, interior and the west. Carol, I'll go ahead and start the slides in this section. And the kinds of things I wondered about is how do you decide which scenes to photograph? Because there are millions of choices of course. And then what kinds of things you've learned from the experience or even just tell us, what's it like, life on the road. 

>> Well, I love life on the road. I think I'm a Nomad. I think it's because all my young life we used to travel down to see my grandmother and granny, down in North Carolina from Minneapolis. And so I just, you know, I learned to love America. It's gorgeous. I mean look at this wooden barn. Look at these cattle. You know, things are going to change. Wooden barns could be gone someday. What do I decide, and you know, what's so great is I haven't really been given much dictate. So it's kind of like, just go for it. So, but my problem is I have trouble curbing myself. If I go into a state, I really want to get everything. If I'm in Pennsylvania, I want to show the Amish community. I want to show the farmers. But I also want to do the big city neighborhoods, the vegetable man. And I can't stop. I don't know how to stop. I want to show the different seasons.

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I want to, if we race, we race as fast as we can. We work 13 hour days. And then when it rains, we'll stay inside to make sure we have metadata. My husband goes with me on the road, so that really is helpful. And he writes the metadata, and I take the images. But it's, everything is so fascinating. I mean, look at New Orleans. I can't stop. I need to go out every day. And if you go into the French Quarter in New Orleans, you're always going to be entertained and surprised. And it's so much fun because I'm now working with equipment that can handle just about anything. It can handle low light. It can handle, I can leave my camera open for an hour and catch the stars at night. Look at Route 66 in America, or just a big football game. Or, you know, it's a never ending thrill. This is taken, this image was taken when I studied the state of Alabama. That was the first day that I really went into and studied  very, very, very seriously. This man knew Martin Luther King. There he is a barber. He knew Martin Luther King very well. Wow. I couldn't stop talking to him. Of course, I've been to the cherry blossoms a million times. I can never get enough. I always have to run down there if I'm in town during the cherry blossom season. This is infrared camera, believe it or not, a black and white infrared camera that I use. It kind of makes everything dreamy. But I like to shoot in black in white sometimes just because it's something different, and it's kind of artistic. I try to not do too much art because my task is to show America. And to show it clean and clear so that 100 years from now, or a 1,000 years from now, when digital is maybe gone, or certainly a lot of the cell phone images we're taking are gone. We can see America. What America looked like. This is, believe it or not, a replication of an image that Francis Benjamin Johnston took. I took this. She was there also. So I had to go right back to the scene. 

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>> Thank you, Carol. I think we'll all be grabbing our cameras and wanting to be on the road. The next section of, I've picked on everyone's, the education outreach folks. They helped us choose one state to hone in on. We've had a taste of Alabama, the man who knew Martin Luther. Of course football for the Crimson Red. But let's start in a little deeper, Carol, and talk a bit more about not just how you come up with an individual photo but how you're thinking through this whole scheme of 50 states. 

>> Well my scheme is, first of all, I want to absolutely during my lifetime do all 50 states. No question on it. But, you know, when I'm in a state, all I can think about is that state. What is important here? It's the nuances, along with the historic images, along with the big scene. So this is Alabama. As I'm traveling, let's say I want to do Birmingham, and then I go to a smaller scene, something like this. I will oftentimes catch things on the way. So I keep my eyes peeled for everything, anything. Animals are important. Foliage is important. All of our historic properties are highly important, so I look for those. This is an old Civil War scene. It was the last Civil War battle, the last one period. They didn't get the word, and they were still fighting. The Civil War was over. So it's a gravesite. This is the Selma. I went to the march. So I look for important events that have happened in the states. I'm interested in teeny tiny towns. I'm interested in big city neighborhoods. I'm interested in landscapes. Obviously in Alabama the Civil War was very big. This was a reenactment. So I just open my mind to what is that state all about? And the beautiful race cars at Tuscaloosa. How important, I'm sorry, not Tuscaloosa, but how important the various events are. That's incredible. 

>> From my notes, Carol, it says Talladega, so that may be the word.

>> Yeah, I mean Talladega. Yeah that's the [inaudible] word.

>> It's at Talladega, super-speedway. Supposing.

>> Yeah.

>> Supposing that the teachers wanted to have their students do a little community preservation through photography, I'll keep rolling through some more scenes from Alabama. But what advice might you give them if they wanted to become creators of primary source research documents?

>> Okay, so maybe you want to follow my mindset. And that is, how are things going to change? Will football still be around, let's say, during your lifetime? If you have a 13-year old student, and you say to him, well let's go out and shoot a football game. You know, it's been around for a very long time. Now it's changed some. But will it be around when you're 90 years old? And what is it that's fascinating about football? Or theater? What's fascinating about it? How has it changed? How will it change? So everything will become historic during your lifetime. Just a little class of what do they look like? You know, I remember these look like they might be girl scouts, and I remember when I was a girl scout. So I think I would say to students, why don't you just put on your thinking cap and see what you can capture that you think might change. And then we'll talk about it, you know. I photograph everything because I think everything will change. Because it did. IT changed from Francis Benjamin Johnston's time. But I think students need to think about that. That they're in the here and now, and maybe they're not thinking about. They're probably thinking the cellphone images they take, for instance, the selfies, will always be there. Will they? So maybe they need to think about, and then to maybe think about their small towns or wherever they live. What might disappear even in ten years? Or fifteen years? This Hillcrest Motel, probably is gone by now. 

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And then sometimes just photographing things that might be important to them and why they're important. Why is a city scape important? Why is it important, have the water, have the city scape reflect into the water? Water, will that be forever available? I mean look at California and some of the difficulties it's had, and Texas. Well, it's always fun to do any kind of carnival. I love carnivals. And I think kids would too. And to, you know, to do creative things, do photography at night. And now, of course, cellphones can capture almost anything. So I think kids would, I would just advise them to see things, see, look around their communities and take images of everything, just for interest sake. Things they're interested in or maybe not interested in. 

>> Thanks, Carol, those are real good tips. We're going to take a shift now a little bit and think about one aspect of what you already covered. The phrase is often vanishing America. So photography as primary source documents can be really important for seeing change over time. You spoke about that. But then there's also the challenge of some things are going to completely disappear. And how do you go about, the word capture is in my mind, but your photographs are special to me, Carol, because you managed to get an entire story within a single frame. What you said about documentary value, as much as artistic composition, clarity of color. And so, again, back to that, there are millions of choices about what you could be photographing. The thing in this section here will be the vanishing America and what it means to you that it will be your photograph that is all that is left of say a barn, like a Mail Pouch, with a Mail Pouch tobacco ad.

>> You know, when I take a photograph, I am clueless as to what I'm taking, whether or not what I'm taking will be here a year from now.

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Unfortunately, I've seen things disappear that didn't, I didn't want to, and that was I took photographs of the World Trade Center from the air, and a month later, it was gone. But I use the word disappearing America. I've done a great deal of time on Route 66. I photographed a lot of old motels and two-lane highways and old gas stations. I did a pure station the other day. This is, believe it or not, a scene from Katrina. It wiped out the Waffle House and left four seats. But it is really not for me to know. I am interested in everything, but as I'm traveling through the United States, there's a lot of kind of, you know, small towns. Some of them are not doing that well. Some are doing very well. But, you know, barns, old railroad cars. Old cars. They're just fascinating. And you know, I can't travel across America. Oh and by the way, I don't fly. We only drive. That's all we ever do. This is Big Tex. Guess what. This image, I took, and two weeks later, it had been standing for 60 years. Two weeks later it burnt to a crisp. Burnt down. So there we go. There we go again. I took an image, and it's gone. So how wonderful that at least it exists, and the Library of Congress, there's nothing like the Library of Congress. They, the Library of Congress is all about preservation. That's what it stands for. And that's what I stand for. And there's no better place to have my images than the Library of Congress. But, you know, look at this old place. Look at phones. You know, I see them every once in a while, I still see pay phones. And I take photos of them. Because they're just about gone. So technology is changing our life. Old lighthouses. We have about 900 left in the United States. So, I am, I consider myself a preservationist. I am taking historic properties. I'm taking photographs of cities, states, regions, tiny towns, whatever, I don't care. Everything's America. But I have great satisfaction in the fact that they're going to be preserved in a place that, there's no better place than the Library of Congress to have them preserved. Because that's what the Library of Congress stands for, preservation. 

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>> Thank you so much, Carol. Having had a good look at buildings, whether it's Big Tex standing for 60 years and all of a sudden, catastrophic fire. He's disappeared. Or the gradual of operation of pay phones from our, [inaudible] our new technology comes about. The pictures are rich. Lots of detail to look at and think about and reflect on with students. But as interesting as the built environment is, we're going to turn now to the wonderful people, the heart of communities, and the photographs you've made in that way. Tell us something about each of these pictures please.

>> Well, this was in New Orleans. I just happened by these women, and they were having so much fun. So I had fun with them. And I just photographed them and their babies. We just had a ball. I said guess what. I said when your babies are 90 years old, they can look at this photograph and see what they looked like when they were babies on the Library of Congress website. Oh and little of, you know, county fairs and animals and young people. And everybody, families, and people just having a good time. Oh man, America is just filled with it. And look at this little lemonade stand, you know. Francis, I wish you would have been with me that day. I think she would have loved it. And this was a place where they make quilts, believe it or not, in Alabama. And her children were helping her make this quilt. And oh, it just meant a great deal for me to be with them. And just somebody just doing a little skateboarding, and, you know, murals are all over America, in every town just about. And so it's just fun to kind of capture people. And look at these reenactors. This was right outside, right next to the White House, is Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington reenactors. The kids must have loved it. And this is a little scene in New Orleans. I've spent a lot of time in New Orleans, by the way, because Francis Benjamin Johnston lived there, and I love it so much. This is a little jazz band in one of the places on Bourbon Street. And this is an ice cream vendor. Snow cones they call them. And just kids. And this is a little scene I caught in Texas, believe it not. This man was a veteran, and he was homeless. And he was with his daughter and his dog. And I treated them to a little meal afterwards because they were so wonderful for me. And they let me, they posed for me for about a half an hour. And it just meant the world to me. And this is a football game, yay. I think this might have been Alabama or Auburn. I don't know. I just loved it. And this is chess players in New York City believe it or not. I mean look at America. Look how rich it is. Look how fun.

>> So Carol.

>> Yes mam.

>> I was going to say let's go ahead and take 30 seconds and look at that picture, but it's disappeared on us. So we'll pick the next one. 

>> Okay.

>> Back to that idea that photos are rich in information, multi-purpose can be used all kinds of different ways. Our final section. Yeah our section focuses on the natural landscape. The people pictures were great and glorious. You often say, Carol, it's our choice to focus on a brighter side of America. You're showing the homeless veteran, young children who knows how their lives will turn out. The destruction of Katrina and September 11th. And yet, photographs almost always have a purpose and a point. And yours is to make sure that people see an optimistic or positive side of America. So as we look at these photographs that sometimes have me ready to sing the song, Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies, if you could talk just a little bit about how you came to your philosophy of photography and how that is such an important part of understanding the primary sources.

>> Well, you know, America is vast. And you really get that when you stand in a national park. We're about to celebrate our national parks next year, our centennial year. And, you know, it's just gorgeous. Now this is a windmill way out in the middle of nowhere. But just, you know, you look across our land, and it's just magnificent. It's huge. And I think everybody even from overseas gets that, that America is an enormous place. You know, I just came from Wyoming where you just, the landscape is just forever. You can look across it, and there seems to be just no ending to what you're seeing. This is just a sand dune. We have many sand dunes. We have sand dunes in Wyoming. We have them in Colorado. We have them in many states. This is the California coast. Now that's another place where you can look out over the ocean. And it seems like you can just see forever. It's all-inspiring is what it is. And how lucky we are. These are our redwoods. I didn't know what to do when I got to the redwoods because you can't capture them in one photograph, no matter how tall your camera is. Because they're huge. This is just a little scene in Hawaii. Just a little, you know, near a lake almost. Everywhere you go, it's scenic. Even in small towns, believe it or not. We have all of our, certainly on the east coast, and in the Midwest, we have our seasons. So that is a whole other scenic view. This is very near my house in Washington D.C. And then you go to the time of tulips. Well tulips last maybe a week or two, and that's it. So you run around to get them everywhere you can. Our botanical gardens are just magnificent. And then we have all the structures. This is in Arizona, Utah. They're called slot canyons because little slots of sun come through. 

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They're gorgeous. They're absolutely magnificent. 

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[ Inaudible ]

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Yes, I'm sorry.

>> No that's alright, Carol. I thought you had the perfect tagline for bringing our slideshow to a conclusion. Magnificent America. We're going to take the rest of the time to hear some questions from the teachers, and we'll try to convey them to you as clearly as we can. 

>> Hi, this is Cheryl from the Library of Congress. I've been collecting questions as they've shown up in the chat. And if you haven't put a question in the chat, go ahead and do that, and we'll get to as many as we can. One of the questions that you had that I saw was about digital and around the phase that Carols said when digital was gone. And one of the participants was wondering if she expects that our digital images will disappear.

>> Well, you know, that's an interesting question. I don't know, and it's not for me to know. But isn't it fascinating to you that film is almost gone? So does that say to you that maybe it might be 500 years from now, that maybe digital will maybe not be gone but may change. That listen, during my lifetime, there have been many things that have come and gone. Cassettes, video used to be on huge two inch tapes. Super eight movies that my dad used to take. So things are changing, have changed, have changed greatly in my lifetime. So I don't know. And I'm not one to know, and I don't think anybody really knows. But they may. Things may change. 

>> Thanks Carol. Somewhat related question was a follow up. You mentioned that your husband collects metadata, and somebody was interested, a couple of people were interested in what kind of metadata he collects.

>> Well what I meant by that is there's no way that I can give Helena an image that doesn't have metadata on it. If I take an image, and I just submit it to the Library of Congress without anything on it, how will you who, hopefully, are going to use this collection, have any clue what it is. So every image I take has GPS on it and has metadata so that we can convey to you what this is. What is this scene? 

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>> Terrific. Let me process.

>> Cheryl, I'll jump in just to add, in terms of preserving the digital photographs, the Library of Congress is very fortunate to have skillful staff who are deeply committed to migrating these digital images from one type of storage media to another. So we'll be working hard to preserve them longer than the contents of the scene will ever survive in the same way we've done a great job with preserving film photography. And on that metadata front, Carol's right. I'm pretty fierce about it. But we like to have a title, the date the photo was taken, the place where she was standing. If things go well, we'll also have latitude-longitude, so geospatial, very precise recording in the future. Carol is a master of keeping up with the latest of new technology. And so, while we have a basic idea of content, subject, when and where, we're also open to adapting if she can bring in more metadata and information into each photograph. Thank you.

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>> Yes. And let me just say one more thing to that, and that is that, that is correct. That is the reason that I had to go to the Library of Congress. There's no better place because of the fact that that's what the Library of Congress is all about. Being able to preserve our heritage. 

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>> Fantastic. The next question coming in is about your process. Again, how do you decide what angle to capture and what story to tell? I guess that's two questions. So tackle that how you like, Carol.

>> Well I'm always looking for the sun on my back so that if I'm out, I want that sun behind me if possible. Because I want the scene very well lit. The other thing is, you know, after you've done. I mean I'm 35 years on this. So after a while you really kind of become almost second nature at capturing things. Because this is what I do, and I do it every day, all day. I mean every weekend, always. I love it. I can't say that enough. And so therefore, after a while, you just kind of, it becomes very, very, very second nature. But well-lit is important, so that everyone can see the scene and understand it and see how beautiful it is or not. 

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>> Carol, what state will you tackle next? I think I saw a question go by wondering if you were coming towards New Hampshire any time soon. 

>> You know, I've been to New Hampshire. I actually had a book on the Mount Washington Hotel, believe it or not. And yes, I did capture old man in the mountain, before it fell. That's the other thing is that, you know, even our natural landscapes sometimes can have disasters. But I don't think I'm up in New England any time real soon. But I certainly have it on my radar screen, that's for sure.

>> Then tell us a little about the states you're traveling in today. Because I know we got a great bunch of photos from you recently.

>> I just spent about four and a half months on the road. I was in Wyoming. Beautiful Wyoming. Wild Wyoming. Gorgeous Wyoming with Yellowstone and the Teton, and all that it offers. And then Colorado and its, the mountains and the, again, it's breathtaking. That's why I have to kind of catch my breath talking about either one of those states. And then I just spent about two weeks in West Virginia, trying my very best to get into a working coal mine. It looks like I'm going to get in, but it might be a few weeks before I can do that. But so, and of course, you know, traveling back and forth through these states, to these states. So I go through the Midwest. I'm going to be working some in the Midwest next year. So I have a very full year next year. I think I'll be in most of the American states next year, believe it or not. Well I just, I'm going to go back to Wyoming and Colorado during the winter months and the spring months.

>> Carol, to wrap up, it looks, I think Cheryl may have just two more questions. Do you ever miss working with film?

>> No, you know, I'm so, well first of all, I'm working with camera equipment that's so iconic I can hardly deal with it when I look at it on my computer, it's magnificent. So no, I really don't. So what I'm capturing is what we call born digital. And that is that if I worked in film I would have to come back, scan it, get the dust off, which is huge. And then do the metadata and the color correcting and everything else. Now I come back and it's ready to go. Now, I still have to do some color correction and some adjustments, but it is so much easier for me. And also, it is a four by five piece of film. The cameras that are working, that I'm working in now are five times the size of a scanned four by five piece of film. So, you know, how can I, it's just fantastic where I am headed. Now, it's a lot of money, but it is worth for the Library of Congress collection. It is worth having fine equipment so that you all can use it. And by the way, what's so wonderful about the Library of Congress is they put these images on in various sizes. So if you just want a small size, you can have one. It's fantastic.

>> Carol, we're out of time. It's 4:50, and I think you may have found the perfect ending, the word fantastic. I've really enjoyed talking with you today. Even though we've had many conversations before, I always learn new things from you. I will keep that phrase, the sun at my back, closely in mind. And it's been great for all of you who participated, watching your questions and comments and observations come through. Thank you for being so engaged with us. 

>> Thank you, Helena, and thank you, Carol, for joining us. This was a fascinating discussion, and I can't thank you enough for all of your time, energy and efforts. And sharing your resources with us. A couple of housekeeping items for our audience. You can take, we'd love to hear your feedback. There is a link to a survey monkey. Please make sure that you click through that and give us some feedback. It's three questions. Shouldn't take you more than a minute or two. You will receive information within the next five business days about receiving your certificates for one instructional hour after completion of this session. And that goes for the folks who are listening to the recording too. We are recording all the sessions for our online conference, and they will be available through the teacher's page at loc.gov/teachers, starting next week. And we will send you an update as to when everything gets updated. And continue the conversation. Lots of great ideas were shared in the chat today. So please, feel free to keep the conversation going via Twitter. Our handle is at TeachingLC, and the hashtag is LCTeachConf. So again, I can't say thank you enough to Carol Highsmith and Helena for the great conversation today.

>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit at loc.gov.

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