Forensic Photography and the VCP - Teaching Veterans and Capturing History

One of the unique opportunities given veterans within the Veterans Curation Program (VCP) is professional training in high quality digital artifact photography that far exceeds the quality of photography practiced by most Cultural Resource Management firms. A representative sample consisting of 10% of every collection processed by VCP is photographed by the veteran technicians and subsequently combined with the finalized collection. These digital images are reviewed and a selection is eventually uploaded to the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR), an international digital repository for the records of archaeological investigations. The process of training veterans with little or no background in photography relies primarily on well-established step-by-step methods, ongoing personalized training and mentoring, and an accessible reference guide designed specifically for the VCP. With the skills and experience acquired through the VCP, many veterans have discovered the value of photography not only as a therapeutic and satisfying hobby, but also as a possible career choice.