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  • An image is always a primary source. It's always telling us some thing about the time period it represents, the people it's recording, and the person taking the photo. Bias occurs in all primary sources. Take journals, newspapers, and letters--all of them will have a bias yet all of them are primary sources. We use them because they allow us a peak into events as a person living there. Photographs are the same way. It's essential to acknowledge the biases that exist, but then there is so much to learn anyway.

  • It is primary source because even though the photographer is biased, the photograph is a first person view. A painting would be secondary because it's then an interpretation. 

  • I guess it's a primary source if made at the time the event occurred, by an eye witness to the event. That said, without staging, the artist/photographer can still create an effect that leads us to the perception they're creating. I hadn't really thought about that, but now will view old sources with a different eye.

  • An image is a primary source if it is taken at the event that it represents or it is made by a person that was at the even. If it is being used as an example of another even then it is not a primary source.

  • If an image depict things that were actually there in the scene, it is a primary source.  It can be biased, like a newspaper article, journal, or any other primary source, but it can reveal information even in its bias.  The bias itself exposes a lot about the feelings of the time.

  • A primary source means that the evidence is first-hand, witnessed by the person capturing the image.

  • A photograph acts as a primary source because it is a first hand account of an event.

  • The image is a primary source if the person actually was there at the time. 

  • A primary image is one that represents a specific event, and was created during the event, or in the case of a painting, by one who witnessed the event.

  • It has to be from that era or event.   If the picture is taken/painted later it now becomes a secondary source.

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