Special Collections: Metro Library to Capture Oklahoma City’s Future History With Film Cameras

From KOSU Radio:

Postcards, magazines, scrapbooks and more fill the archive shelves, depicting the story of OKC’s past. Soon, there will be additions to the past glimpses of the city, told through the lenses of six vintage cameras.

Recapturing OKC, a new special collection at the Metropolitan Library System, will feature snapshots of a current Oklahoma City for future Oklahomans.

The idea of the new collection came after a donation, this one not just of books, but of the cameras. Judie Matthews, special collections librarian, said the department wasn’t quite sure what to do with the cameras. Then, she had an idea.

“Why don’t we take a little end of the year money, why don’t we ask some photographers to take these older cameras,” Matthews said she asked one of her colleagues.

So the archivists decided to hire photographers to use the old cameras to take photos of Oklahoma City to add to the archive. Matthews gave full creative control to photographers, who could recreate a picture from the archive or capture something new.

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