Why does this document exist? In our society today, the reasons that photographs exist are as varied as the people who take them. In the nineteenth century, however, very slow shutter speeds, low portability, the hazards of the technology, and very high overall costs made photography a very different thing than it is today. As a result, having a photograph taken was usually a much more formal event, one that often consisted of a professional photographer behind the camera and a person of wealth and privilege in front of it. Photographic subjects had to sit completely still for many minutes, which may account for the strained and uncomfortable looks on so many nineteenth century faces! Public archives have collected and preserved photographs of many famous and influential people and the public events with which they were involved. Many also have photograph collections that document a much broader spectrum of society -- company records, newspaper files and treasured family albums. Although photographs use technology to show us pieces of ‘real' life, it is important to remember that photographs, like all historical documents, were shaped by human intentions. Someone was holding the camera, selecting the image, and creating the effect that they wanted to achieve. Why would we use this source? Photographs can provide a wealth of information about the past, "showing" us what people, places and events looked like in the past. But our ability to glean the most from photographs -- as from any historical document -- is dependent on our understanding of how, where, and why the document was created. The contexts of a photograph's construction, as well as its content, can tell us a great deal about what (and who) mattered to people. Do we know who took the photograph, where and why? Can we tell if the photograph has been altered? What information is written on the front or back of the print? Can the arrangement of photographs in a family album tell us anything about family life? Can we learn anything about the relationships between the people being photographed, or between them and the photographer, from the photograph itself? As more and more visual "evidence" becomes available to historians of the future through photographs and moving images, this type of critical analysis will become increasing important. How do we find and use this source? Photographs are available in many archival repositories, usually in separate sections of the archives and indexed by name, place and subject. Increasingly, larger institutions are making photographic images available online, so that researchers can look at them without visiting the archives. To leave this website and look at visual images in the BC Archives, go to http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/visual/visual.htm