Sourcework

How material enters the record depends on how it is found, created, received, documented, verified, and protected before public representation.

My research starts with people and places. Photography, observation, interviews, and testimony create records through relationships rather than extraction, with access, permission to document, subject participation, and intended use established separately at the level each situation requires.

Photography + observation

Dates, locations, circumstances, authorship, and the conditions under which a record was made remain attached to it.

Interviews + testimony

Participation, quotation, attribution, anonymity, recording, and later use are discussed and documented as appropriate.

Access

Permission to enter a place does not automatically authorize every photograph, recording, identification, or publication.

A man in a dark suit reads from an open book in a library lined with books.
Reading in a library. Photograph by Levi Meir Clancy.
Rows of people bow in prayer along a city street between parked cars.
Congregational prayer in a city street. Photograph by Levi Meir Clancy.
A smiling child leans with both arms across a railing.
A child at a railing. Photograph by Levi Meir Clancy.
Archives and open sources require more than availability.

Availability

Archives, public records, platform material, and other open sources enter the work through provenance, rights, and verification—not availability alone. OSINT is one source mode; publicly accessible material is not automatically verified, ethical to identify, or licensed for reproduction.

Archives

Collection identity, call numbers, page order, access conditions, reproduction rights, and the source’s material context remain legible.

Public records

Official publication does not remove the need to establish authenticity, scope, date, jurisdiction, and later correction or withdrawal.

Digital evidence + OSINT

Origin, capture method, timestamps, platform context, manipulation risk, corroboration, privacy, and identification risk are evaluated before use.

Rights + use

Lawful access, permission to reproduce, ethical publication, and responsible recirculation are treated as distinct questions.

Cover page of a declassified 1944 intelligence report titled Report from Palestine.
Harith Taji el-Faruqi Repatriation and Palestine Report File, 1944. Declassified CIA record from a working archive; not yet a published drop.
Every source must be verified, and some must be protected. Every source begins with a claim about what it is, where it came from, and what it can support.

Verification records what is known, how it is known, what conflicts, and where confidence ends. Protection limits exposure when identification creates foreseeable harm.

Authenticity

Format, sequence, internal evidence, surrounding records, and known transformations are checked before a source is treated as genuine.

Provenance

Creator, date, location, collection, custody, identifiers, modifications, and acquisition context are recorded where available.

Corroboration

Independent records, witnesses, contextual evidence, and competing accounts are compared without manufacturing agreement.

Protection

Names, faces, voices, locations, metadata, and combined details may be withheld, reduced, or described without display when exposure creates risk.

An abandoned red station wagon sits beneath unfinished concrete structures amid rubble.
An abandoned structure and vehicle. Photograph by Levi Meir Clancy.
Three weathered political posters are layered across a utility box beside a street.
Layered political posters in public space. Photograph by Levi Meir Clancy.