Levine, Emily J. “Aby Warburg and Weimar Jewish Culture: Navigating Normative Narratives, Counternarratives, and Historical Context.” In The German-Jewish Experience Revisited, edited by Steven E. Aschheim and Vivian Liska, 1st ed., 117–34. Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts 3. De Gruyter, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkjwr1.10.

Apparently Aby Warburg "obsessively kept" notes on antisemitic incidents on the Eastern front in his zettelkasten.

This piece looks at Warburg's Jewish identity as supported or not by the contents of his zettelkasten, thus placing it in the use of zettelkasten or card index as autobiography.

Might one's notes reflect who they were as a means of creating both their identity while alive as well as revealing it once they've passed on? Might the use of historical method provide its own historical method to be taken up on a meta basis after one's death?

Sometimes having examples of others' work can be helpful. In your case, perhaps perusing some zettelkasten work by previous users within the art/image space? In this respect some of the work by Aby Warburg may be interesting to you. I might suggest starting with his archive here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/archive/archive-collections/verknüpfungszwang-exhibition/mnemosyne-materials

https://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2019/10/elizabeth-sears-academic-refugees-in-the-1930s-in-and-around-the-warburg-circle/

Reading room at the Warburg Institute, via Elizabeth Sears.

Is this part of Aby Warburg's zettelkasten?

http://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=3986

Appears to be a row of slip boxes behind Aby Warburg in this photo of his study in Hamburg from 1917.

https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/archive/archive-collections/verkn%C3%BCpfungszwang-exhibition/mnemosyne-materials

Knowing about Aby Warburg's zettelkasten use, I'd noticed that the Mnemosyne Atlas looked suspiciously like a visual version of a zettelkasten, but with images instead of index cards or slips. Apparently I'm not the first...

https://read.dukeupress.edu/new-german-critique/article-abstract/47/1%20(139)/105/151166/Aby-Warburg-and-Cinema-Revisited?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://warburg.library.cornell.edu/about/mnemosyne-themes

Looking at the broad themes here makes me wonder if they line up potentially with the larger groups of cards in Warburg's zettelkasten?

While the non-discursive, frequently digressive character of the Atlas frustrates any smooth critical narrative of its themes and contents, nine thematic sequences may still be discerned:

The ideas of non-discursive, digressive, and frustrated narrative could easily be applied to a stranger approaching another person's collection of notes.

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>Anne Ganzert</span> in (1) Anne Ganzert on Twitter: "@ChrisAldrich @gipperfish @jdconnor @vaultofculture This is early 17th century right? Nice! I always considered Aby Warburg my favorite „early adopter“ but this sounds great. One clear Warburg benefit: the Mnemosyne Atlas is still around and even digitized 👏🏻" / Twitter (<time class='dt-published'>01/16/2022 12:54:03</time>)</cite></small>