Primary and Secondary Sources

In 1981 the artist Sherrie Levine exhibited After Walker Evans, a series of photographs she shot of Walker Evans' photographs that had been published in an exhibition catalog called First and Last.

Among other things, Levine's appropriations brought into question the concept of primary and secondary sources. The difference between primary and secondary sources is usually fairly simple. According to Sylvan Barnet's Short Guide to Writing about Art (2005), "primary materials... are the subject of study, and the secondary materials are critical and historical accounts already written about these primary materials." A diary is an example of a primary source. A published biography is a secondary source.

In Levine's formulation, however, the original 1936 Walker Evans' photos may be the primary sources, and the First and Last book a secondary source, but where do Levine's photos fit in? Are they tertiary? Primary? Secondary, but once removed?

I haven't got the answers, but this stuff is important when it comes to research. Try to figure out as much contextual information about your sources as you can. Whether it's primary, secondary, or something else entirely, the relationship of a document/object to its creator and subject (respectively) can tell you tons about the quality, scope, and value of your source!