One of VASSA’s main aims is to provide a collection point – or portal – for information relating to South African vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes.
The photo galleries are designed to further this aim by allowing researchers, VASSA members and interested others to share their images of the vernacular architectural environment using the VASSA group within Flikr.
Flikr is a free application which allows users to store up to 300MB of their images free of charge in a system that is “cloud” based – meaning the back up and curatorial responsibilities are taken care of by Flikr, freeing up your hard drive and ensuring safe long-term back up of your images.
Using groups rather like social networks do, users can share images with one another.
For those who like conserving vernacular buildings and environments, this offers a simple and effective way to set up a free archive that we, as fellow enthusiasts can share.
Rather than duplicate repositories, we want to encourage like-minded people to share their images this way.
Also, we know that VASSA members have been photographing buildings and environments since 1964.
This vast collection of images, many with dates known, is a hugely valuable resource.
Please – join the Members’ gallery and upload your older photographs, or add yours to existing folders on particular sites to help build a collective knowledge base.
Getting started
You will need a Flikr account – go to http://www.flickr.com/ and follow the simple prompts to set up your account.
Once a Flikr member, make sure you join the Vernacs group.
Now you’re ready to upload your images to your own Flikr account and set your particular copyright desires.
Then choose which images you wish to share to which folder (or “thread”) within the Vernacs Flikr group.
And your images are part of the VASSA archive.
It’s that simple.
