Category talk:DOCUMERICA
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Suggestions for finding the image you want from the DOCUMERICA collection
- The Category:US National Archives series: DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency's Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, compiled 1972 - 1977 contains all the DOCUMERICA images.
- Each photographer was given an assignment to focus on the environment in a location. This includes how people adapt to polluted or urban environments, and how industry or real estate development affect the environment. The location of the assignment could be a city (for example, how people in New York City bring nature into their lives, or how pollution affects the air and people of Birmingham, Alabama), a body of water (Lake Pontchartrain), a neighborhood (the Fountain Square area of Cincinnati, the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago), etc. Assignments were usually in one U.S. state, but some included areas across the border of another state. If you know the photographer's name, or the city or general location of the assignment, you can find similar images by searching on the photographer's name. Some, but not all of the DOCUMERICA photographs have been categorized under the photographer's name on the DOCUMERICA page.
- The best way to get *all* the images from a particular assignment is to do a Commons search on the photographer's name, rather than looking to see which images have already been categorized under their name.
- However, note that several DOCUMERICA photographers had more than one assignment. This group includes at least Charles O'Rear, Danny Lyons, and Gene Daniels.
- Instead of searching by photographer, you can search on a location. However, be aware that you may not get all the images from that *assignment*. First, some DOCUMERICA photographs have only general locations listed, e.g., Category:California Coast and Category:Adirondack Mountains. Second, most assignments are topics like "water pollution *in the area of* Fitchburg, Massachusetts". The Commons category system requires that the photographs be categorized to more specific locations such as "Fitchburg, Massachusetts", "Nashua River", etc. Third, if the location is not important to the subject of the photograph (such as an image of a dumped automobile on the bank of the Nashua River), the Wikimedian who categorized the photograph may not have included a category for that location.
- Each image states the month and year photographed. If you are looking for representative images for that month and/or year, if you find one photograph from that assignment, you can search on the photographer's name for additional images shot that same month and year. Almost all the DOCUMERICA assignments were completed within a month or two.
- Some Wikimedians are categorizing some DOCUMERICA images to (the year in U.S. state or city), e.g., Category:1973 in Cincinnati, Ohio. There is no consistency on this.