PICTURE FILES

Monthly newsletter for Mail Mag, risograph, 5.5x8.5”, various papers
Organizational spreadsheet
Each month I write about one drawer from the San Diego Public Library’s Picture File, which contains 152 drawers of file folders of pictures cut out from magazines and books. An incomplete archive, the library stopped updating it over a decade ago. I use a random number generator to pick which drawer to write about each month.

March 2025
Drawer 81: Inscriptions to Italy - Cities
Involuntary Art
PDF


February 2025
Drawer 59: Design - Christmas to Dish Gardens
Desks
PDF

January 2025
Drawer 148: Wagon to Watches
Waste Basket
PDF


December 2024
Drawer 50: Columbia Ice Field to Costume - American - 1878
Corn
PDF

November 2024
Drawer 127: Rehabilitation to Rock Formation
Roads
PDF


October 2024
Drawer 61: Drawings - Goya to Ecology
Ear(s)
PDF

September 2024
Special dispatch from the New York Public Library Picture Collection
Dance - Social - 1980s
PDF

August 2024
Drawer 63: England - London - Aerial Views to Etosha Park, Namibia
Erosion
PDF

July 2024
Drawer 88: Living Rooms — 1980-1989 to Magazine Covers
Love
PDF


June 2024
Drawer 66: Fire Engines to Flower Arrangements
Fish Prints
PDF

Please note that fluorescent risograph colors scan poorly and that the colors of these scans are not necessarily accurate representations of the printed material.