"Down a Dark Passage" (Nuns Series): Photographic and Audiovisual Materials, 2002-2010

Access Restrictions:

Access note. Series contains electronic records that may need to be reformatted. Access copies of electronic records require special equipment. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Series contains fragile materials and may require extra assistance from staff. These include negatives. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Series contains audiovisual/photographic formats such as audiocassettes that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

:
More about accessing and using these materials...
Extent:
3.0 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Scope and content:

This series comprises finished exhibit prints, proof prints, contact sheets, and negatives, all deriving from Louanne Watley's project, "Down a Dark Passage," in which she explores through portraiture and interviews communities of aging Catholic nuns from Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. There are also several images of monks from Buddhist and Trappist communities in Virginia. Names of specific communities are listed in the entries in this series.

The portraits in finished form are chiefly black-and-white contact prints, and often feature close-ups of the nuns' heads, eyes, hands, and feet. They are often enhanced with various artistic techniques. Some photographs show nuns working outside and in building interiors.

Related to this work are oral history recordings conducted by Louanne Watley with Catholic and Buddhist nuns, as well as a CD-ROM of 33 digitized images selected from the collection.

Writings and other items that offer the artist's own view of her career and are found in the Exhibit Materials and Papers series.

Processing information:

Library staff devised a numbering system for individual images which matches negative images to contact prints and single prints; thus, negative N1 corresponds with print P1 and contact print image CP1. However, in some cases contact sheets and negative sheets also represent groups of images and so their unique number may not correspond to a specific image with that number.

Arrangement:

This series is organized into format subseries for contact sheets and proof prints, photographic prints, still image film negatives, and digital items; there are also a subgroup for exhibit prints and silk-screened panels.

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials


Collection restrictions:

Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile and may require extra assistance from staff. These include negatives and silkscreened exhibit panels. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Collection contains electronic records that may need to be reformatted. Access copies of electronic records require special equipment. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Collection contains audiovisual/photographic formats that may need to be reformatted before use. These include audiocassettes. Contact Research Services for access.

Use & permissions:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Before you visit:
Please consult our up-to-date information for visitors page, as our services and guidelines periodically change.