VISUAL SUPPLEMENT TO FEMA PHOTOGRAPHIC
GUIDANCE
FOR DOCUMENTING HISTORIC RESOURCES
The goal of the FEMA Photographic
Guidance is to
show you how to take photographs or digital images from which Historic
Preservation Specialists in FEMA can determine the eligibility of historic
properties for the National Register of Historic Places and to assess damage.
Defining a historic property as a “physically concrete and tangible property
with a relatively fixed location,” the National Register recognizes five types
of properties: buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts. To
accomplish this, the Guidance, to which this is an supplement:
1. Outlines how to look at a historic property
(including buildings, structures, objects, sites and districts) and the sequence
in which it should be described and photographed.
2. Recommends three levels of documentation with
photographs or digital images (called views) to appropriately record the
exterior of a building or structure and its key interior features (and when to
use each of these levels).
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The minimum level of two or three photographs is
suited for survey.
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The basic level of five exterior views and three
interior views provides the information necessary to describe a property.
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The expanded level of documentation when more
comprehensive coverage of a property is needed.
3. Recommends what pictorial content is useful to make
the determination of whether historic properties are potentially eligible for
the National Register and whether they retain integrity.
This Visual Supplement provides you with
examples of photographs of buildings and structures documented at the Minimum
and Basic Levels. Buildings are intended to shelter human activities and range
from residences to factories. Structures are constructions made for other than
human shelter.
At the minimum level two perspective photographs
are usually the best way to document a building or structure. These include:
a) photograph showing the front and one side of the building or structure and
b) a second photograph showing the rear and the other side of the building.
These two photographs document all four sides of a building. Some historic
properties will be found in situations where it is not possible to get a rear
perspective view of a buildings or structure. In that case, the second
photograph could be an elevation and a third might be an important architectural
or structural detail.
In moving to the basic level one would add elevations of the front façade and
important architectural or structural elements or details -- porches, front
entrance, details of materials. Interior views would be of major spaces and some
details of finish and materials.
The
examples in this Visual Appendix are:
1. Minimum Level for Building:
2. Minimum and Basic Level for Building
3. Minimum and Basic Level for Structures
