Building an Image Archive in 2025
In a sea of sameness, the best references are the ones that ask questions, hold tension, and outlast the algorithm.
In the age of infinite scroll, the concept of the image archive has shifted. What once referred to personal folders, institutional libraries, and hard drives of rare scans has now become a broader cultural dilemma. Everyone is archiving, but fewer people are curating with purpose.
Search functions are getting sharper. AI can now surface references with eerie accuracy. Pinterest boards auto-populate. Visual search has collapsed the barrier between remembering and retrieving. Yet the experience of building a truly meaningful archive, which is one that sharpens your eye and deepens your authorship, has never felt more fractured.
The question is to recognise what’s worth saving.
In this newsletter I am breaking down my approach and the reason why I am turning away from building an image library online. How I will turn to slower ways of working with more intention and where to find unique images no one has seen before.
Welcome to my world (forever in progress) of offline referencing and my personal image library approach.
Only 4 days left to join the Strategic Art Direction Course this year!