Is it worth it

[gb hill]

After I scan my negs, I roll the strips up & place them back in the film container. Sleeves are too expensive for me. I then put the containers in Folgers coffee jugs, the big plastic ones. After I'm dead & gone someone will sell those off at an auction along with my other useless junk that my kids don't want & someone will pay a dollar for all those jugs. Open them up, remembering the guy who got rich off V. Maier, buy a film scanner, unless he got mine for say 2 bucks & starts scanning. Once he sees my art of snapshot photography he will probably get pissed off, smash the scanner & throw the rest of the Folgers can's in the trash & piss on my grave for wasting 3 lousy bucks at an auction.

 

[rjstep3]

I'm sorry if this is too personal/emotional for some ...

My brother was something of a loser and a wastrel, but after our parents died, he somehow got his hands on the family photos. I was estranged from him so didn't have the chance to get them or see them, let alone scan them or catalogue them.

Then he died. It turned out he had been evicted for non-payment of rent, so he left pretty sharp-ish, leaving behind ... well, everything. As my wife put it, all those photos, as well as some other things which were precious to me, are now just landfill.

All I have left - I managed to keep with me no more than 200 or so photographs from my childhood and early adulthood, that's all. I have scanned in all my photos, everything, I just went through and scanned them in using my Opticfilm 120, trying to wring every last detail out of them. Frankly, they weren't good photos, IQ-wise or in any other way whatsoever. You would pass over them pretty quickly.

However, for me, they are everything - all I have left to connect with my long-gone past. So, yes, it is worth it, I'm glad I spent all those hours scanning and re-scanning, PS-ing, and hours since looking at them, de-spottling, colour-correcting, you name it.

It's worth it, believe me, I'm glad I can pass them on, it's something, not much I grant you, but something. You don't know the value of something until/unless you lose it.

rjstep3

 

[Dralowid]

rjstep3, I agree though my situation is very different from yours.

I think it is worth it. The process is relaxing and has a habit of stirring up the grey matter...Why did I take that? Where was that? Who the hell was that? etc etc

Nothing wrong with memories either your own or someone else's, just don't wallow in it.

 

[GaryLH]

Most of my photos are of interest to me mostly. But if I want to have them around after I'm gone and be sure that they are not lost forever, I create a book now using Blurb or other print-on-demand service, register it with an ISBN and copyright, and submit a sample to the Library of Congress. Someone will maintain it after I cannot, and someone might even see it now and then.

I scan old photos of family and friends for my enjoyment, and share them with those pictured when they want to see them. They can have them too. But I see little real interest from them to obtain the collection. So such efforts are for me, and I don't worry about what others might think of them.

G

Hadn't thought of that.. The blurb book that is for the stuff I think the family may be interested in..the rest is just of interest to me..if it disappears..so be it.

Thanks
Gary

 

[Roger Hicks]

... that sounds like an excellent idea

Most of the old stuff I have is there because it was forgotten or neglected ... my grandma threw away lots of negatives in her tidying zeal

Dear Stewart,

Wonderful to see you back again. I hope that your recent affliction does not mean that you have to continue wearing that awful head-brace in your avatar.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Pioneer]

I second that. Good to see you back Stewart. Hope all is well.

 

[akptc]

i sometimes wonder what will happen to my images after i'm dead & buried...

I agree with others here.. I make books and keep negatives in albums. Maybe not everyone will cherish every picture but sooner or later many of those photos are likely to become part of the family treasure. The younger generation may surprise you too - a couple of years ago I visited family in Poland, many of whom I'd never met before. I took a ton of pictures, of course, of people, of the family house and environs. They were a hit! So much so that I printed a book of them. Prints, especially in book format, are in my opinion a perfect way to preserve the legacy.

 

[Sparrow]

Dear Stewart,

Wonderful to see you back again. I hope that your recent affliction does not mean that you have to continue wearing that awful head-brace in your avatar.

Cheers,

R.

... thank you Roger, it's good to be back, they detached all the machinery before letting me out thankfully.

... the headphones were a satirical comment (leica's solution to the M8 shutter noise)

 

[MrFujicaman]

GB Hill...what I meant was marked that way,NOBODY would throw them out !

 

[shadowfox]

It's worth it.

A legacy is the outcome of consistency motivated by the desire to express (or preserve) something that is important to us, it is not born out of worrying about what others may think.

 

[Dektol Dan]

Rue Morgue Polka

Rue Morgue Polka

My father spent his life pursuing photography from an artistic point of view. He was an art school graduate and art teacher. He never had a one man show.

Before he died he cataloged thousands of sleeved negatives, mostly black and white. He saved them in ten or fifteen shoe box sized boxes.

I alone carried on the old man's tradition in my family.

After he died, my brothers both wanted the hundreds of family pictures, but I didn't want to be part of any family dispute.

Last fall, and 14 years after the old man's demise, I wrote my brothers to see if I could access the old man's negative collection for a retrospective.

No reply. Seems that they kept the family pictures and trashed the rest.

Karma says this will happen to me too. A life time of work in negatives can easily fit in one grocery bag.

 

[Archiver]

My father spent his life pursuing photography from an artistic point of view. He was an art school graduate and art teacher. He never had a one man show.

Before he died he cataloged thousands of sleeved negatives, mostly black and white. He saved them in ten or fifteen shoe box sized boxes.

I alone carried on the old man's tradition in my family.

After he died, my brothers both wanted the hundreds of family pictures, but I didn't want to be part of any family dispute.

Last fall, and 14 years after the old man's demise, I wrote my brothers to see if I could access the old man's negative collection for a retrospective.

No reply. Seems that they kept the family pictures and trashed the rest.

These kinds of stories sadden and annoy me. The personal legacy of one man being discarded by self-interested fools. In retrospect, perhaps you could have worn the family dispute if it meant being able to save your father's photographic work.

As I mentioned earlier, my Dad plans to scan all of his father's family photographs. If he doesn't do it, no one else in the family will, because no one else has the computer know how or inclination. Whether or not the rest of the family would appreciate this or not, it's going to be preserved. Some time down the track, other relatives might take an interest in them.

And as for preserving your own work, I like the suggestion of having books printed and given to family members, perhaps even with a CD/DVD or USB key stuck in the back. I wonder if there is an option to send books to the Australian equivalent of the Library of Congress for preservation.

Is it worth it? Over the years, I've become avidly interested in collating all the photographs and information about our family, and I've begun to gather as much together as I can. I'm very thankful that so many photos were taken of my direct family over the years, and it's intriguing to see the strictly posed black and white photos from what may be a century ago. In a sense, my own interest is proof that this is worth it. If I'm interested now, someone else is sure to be interested in years to come.

 

[raid]

I have switched from 100% images (slides) of landscape scenes to 90% images of my family. There are hardly any photos of me.

People come and go. This is life.

Raid

For the second time I find myself going through a stack of Kodachromes from the sixties and seventies.

My former wife brought them around ,shot by her aunt ,she wonders if they are of any interest.

I`ve done this before and dutifully scanned the family pics and emailed them .
The family showed little interest.

This time I`ll once again ,keep the people shots but dump the sunsets ,flowers and landscapes.

I still have a box of MF negs taken in the twenties and thirties to go through but wonder ,given the families previous lack of interest, how worthwhile any of this is.

Does anybody give any thought to how their "legacy" will be treated ?

 

[Archiver]

No reply. Seems that they kept the family pictures and trashed the rest.

Karma says this will happen to me too. A life time of work in negatives can easily fit in one grocery bag.

No. Karma says that your brothers' legacy will be discarded like so much ash in the wind. That is karma.

 

[Pioneer]

My father spent his life pursuing photography from an artistic point of view. He was an art school graduate and art teacher. He never had a one man show.

Before he died he cataloged thousands of sleeved negatives, mostly black and white. He saved them in ten or fifteen shoe box sized boxes.

I alone carried on the old man's tradition in my family.

After he died, my brothers both wanted the hundreds of family pictures, but I didn't want to be part of any family dispute.

Last fall, and 14 years after the old man's demise, I wrote my brothers to see if I could access the old man's negative collection for a retrospective.

No reply. Seems that they kept the family pictures and trashed the rest.

Karma says this will happen to me too. A life time of work in negatives can easily fit in one grocery bag.

This is sad. I know you may not have been able at the time but it may have been a better ending if you had not been forced to wait 14 years to express your interest.

However, I too have made a number of mistakes in my younger years that I now wish I could step back and reverse. I would hope that your brothers also regret their short sighted action.

 

[Frida]

I have switched from 100% images (slides) of landscape scenes to 90% images of my family. There are hardly any photos of me.

I was never 100% landscape, but I'm definitely in the 90% (probably 99%) family camp now. Now that we no longer shoot weddings, I pretty much only shoot my immediate and extended family, as well as any outings we take as a family (e.g., to the zoo). Nothing else seems meaningful.