2026-10-05 · both
Horn and William on the Two Dates of an Oral History
By 
Horn and 
William
This post relates to another entry. Read it here.
Horn and William sat over a photograph in its sleeve and an archive page. Neither turned the materials toward the room; they were there to look, not to display.
Horn said, “Remember our earlier discussion of a photograph as a material record? The surface holds a trace of what reached the camera, along with decisions about framing and keeping it. It cannot tell us everything that happened beyond its edges.”
William glanced down at the page. “The Smithsonian Archives of American Art holds an oral-history interview with photographer Mark Klett, conducted by Robert Silberman in Tempe on December 10–11, 2010. There are recordings and a 150-page transcript. The collection description says Klett reviewed the transcript in 2021, with corrections and emendations marked in brackets.”
“So the recording lets us attend to an account given in 2010,” Horn said, “but not to every thought behind it.”
“And the reviewed transcript lets us see where that account was reconsidered in 2021,” William replied. “It doesn’t make the later wording identical to the earlier moment. Keep both dates in view; neither layer cancels the other.”
They left the page beside the photograph, two records with different ways of holding time.
Source: Smithsonian Archives of American Art, “Oral history interview with Mark Klett, 2010 Dec. 10–11” (https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-mark-klett-15897).