Letting go (of past work)

[LCSmith]

I have no idea why you would say that. We have a family photo album with pictures from the early 1900s through the 1950s that is highly valued amongst the whole family. Lots of us care a great deal for those pictures. To give one example: one picture is of my mother as a teenager riding two horses at the same time, standing with a foot on each saddle. I would never have known she was such a daredevil otherwise. (You know - "Pictures or it didn't happen.")

Well, I suppose I say it because I sense it is probably true. Family pictures are one thing, but all the rest of it is self-indulgent dilettantism. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like making pictures as much as the next gal. But to suppose that anyone will care about those pictures after I am dead is just nonsense. And the overwhelming odds are that the same is true for nearly everyone.

 

[semi-ambivalent]

No one will care about the pictures we make when we die. Which means no one really cares about the pictures we make now.

While not universal, I have existential evidence that what you say here is total bull****. Perhaps you fancy yourself an agent provocateur or something. If so, do carry on.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

No one will care about the pictures we make when we die. Which means no one really cares about the pictures we make now.

I care about my photos. I make photos to please myself.
I don't expect others to like my work, nor do I care.

Letting go of old work? My hand was forced.

In Superstorm Sandy two feet of flood water in my home destroyed all my photos, negatives and slides.
Nearly all of 40+ years of my own photos, plus many others taken by my mom and other family members.

FWIW I miss the family photos more than my own work. Many of those people are gone now...

Chris

 

[Rob-F]

I still feel bad about having tossed, around 1963 or so, a Kodachrome-X slide I took of a rusty 50 gallon drum in the Nevada desert. I took it with my M2 and 90mm Elmarit (I still have those). It taught me, not to save every photo no matter how banal, but to think twice before pitching my shots.

Nice film, that Kodachrome-X.

 

[Archiver]

This is why I keep everything. Even if it has no artistic value, it jogs my memory. There is so much of my life that is lost in the mists of time and this way some of it comes back. Just the other day, some simple pictures of days I spent with an ex brought back fond memories I wouldn't otherwise have had access to. They weren't even anything personal, just mostly snaps from the car window, often blurry, but seeing them brought back the feeling of that day, smells of leaves and food, wind and temperature, atmosphere of a drive.

A few years ago, I found an old 110 cassette camera which had an undeveloped roll in it. The last time I saw it was in the early 80s. When I had it developed, I was absolutely thrilled to see pictures of my best friend at the time and my childhood backyard. The images are spotty and blurry but the memories were so good.


For much of my life, I've been keeping pretty detailed journals, often with notes about what music I'm listening to and what food I'm eating at the time. So when I want a good nostalgia trip, I break out the music that was noted in the journal, sit in a quiet place, and read. It's amazing how much can come back. Scent is extremely powerful, too. I admit that I used to keep a bottle of the perfume my first girlfriend used to use, so I could smell it and remember her.


It's one of my most profound regrets that I didn't take a lot more pictures in my teenage and early adult years, because that's a boatload of good memories for which I have very little photographic record.


Nowadays, I take pictures of everything, and shoot a fair bit of video as well, so the past 17 years or so are very well covered. In the past five or six years, I've taken to writing in my journal every day, noting events, places, people and activities, as well as thoughts, so on any given day, I know where I was and what I was doing. I'll continue this for the rest of my life, very likely.

 

[zuiko85]

Have kept a few photos, discarded 90% or more though. Mostly family stuff. I'm a week shy of 70 and now only want to go out and make 'masterpieces'. Getting ready to cut up a pile of photo paper and load my 4X5 film holders. I figure a busy day would be exposing 6~12 sheets. A lot easier to view, file, and put away than 35mm negs.

 

[Archiver]

In Superstorm Sandy two feet of flood water in my home destroyed all my photos, negatives and slides.
Nearly all of 40+ years of my own photos, plus many others taken by my mom and other family members.

FWIW I miss the family photos more than my own work. Many of those people are gone now...

Chris

Man, that's just terrible. I'm sorry for that loss. 🙁

 

[LCSmith]

While not universal, I have existential evidence that what you say here is total bull****. Perhaps you fancy yourself an agent provocateur or something. If so, do carry on.

It is only truth, my friend. Consider Marcus Aurelius.

The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.

The sentiment applies cogently to pictures.

 

[Bob Michaels]

...... I'd like to hear from others about how they deal with decades of old work, especially what hasn't seen the light of day. ......

In the late 1980's I threw away the total of 12 years of attempted serious photography including notebook after notebook of negatives & proof sheets, proof prints, printing notes, boxes of 35mm slides, and a number of framed prints, keeping only a few prints of family photos that I considered significant. I had essentially stopped photographing a few years earlier after concluding my photography was not of any real merit. I had already sold multiple cameras, lenses, and a very nice darkroom. I have never regretted that decision.

For 20 years, I basically only did family happy snaps using one SLR and lens I had kept.

In the late 1990's, I developed an interest in my local disappearing local culture and began photographing again. I was able to make a total fresh start utilizing only the technical skills from way back in the past. I am pleased with my photographic results of the last 20 years but do not miss all of my earlier work that is now totally gone.

This is the only remains of that earlier work that was discarded. It is a scan of a print that my sister still has hanging in her house. It is from Bike Week in Daytona Beach back in 1973.

 

[Michael Markey]

It's one of my most profound regrets that I didn't take a lot more pictures in my teenage and early adult years, because that's a boatload of good memories for which I have very little photographic record.

Yes I can relate to that. In the early `70`s I was helping a friend with concerts and festivals . All the big names of the time : Byrds ,Sonny Terry ,Taylor , Hardin and I didn`t carry a camera . Zero photographic record only the memories. I was doing a job and a camera may not have been welcome but still ...

 

[olifaunt]

I've decided that if I am only going to consider my photography as valid insofar I can get masterpieces, I will be a very unhappy photographer (since masterpieces are rare).

I'd rather put on some music, smoke a joint, and page through folders of every single photo I have of a certain day/weekend. In this state every photo, even otherwise mundane ones I wouldn't share, has a little Where's Waldo realization of the reason I took it that makes it suddenly fabulous, or some element of it dances with the music. It's better than going to the movies.

 

[LCSmith]

I've decided that if I am only going to consider my photography as valid insofar I can get masterpieces, I will be a very unhappy photographer (since masterpieces are rare).

I'd rather put on some music, smoke a joint, and page through folders of every single photo I have of a certain day/weekend. In this state every photo, even otherwise mundane ones I wouldn't share, has a little Where's Waldo realization of the reason I took it that makes it suddenly fabulous, or some element of it dances with the music. It's better than going to the movies.

I have been thinking about my absolutist and dim statements about the worth of one's photography, and I think yours is a saner philosophy of artistic practice.

I recently finished The Stranger by Camus, and it has a way of rejuvenating any latent apathy that may lurk in one's soul. Such has been the case with me.

 

[jarski]

Am having digital-only archive. Guess my way of 'letting go' is to gently start ignoring all the average photos as time piles on top of them. They are still on an external hard drive, but am hardly ever looking at them. Best ones are now edited and pushed into cloud, so can access them with all the devices when feeling like.

 

[Takkun]

I have been thinking about my absolutist and dim statements about the worth of one's photography, and I think yours is a saner philosophy of artistic practice.

I recently finished The Stranger by Camus, and it has a way of rejuvenating any latent apathy that may lurk in one's soul. Such has been the case with me.

I think after a handful of cynical threads begun by a certain Airplane! character, your comments were taken as hostile, but I totally get what you're saying. In the end, its a hobby for 99% of us and worth keeping that in perspective.

One professor I had early in grad school very much stressed the importance of using the best archival materials and methods, and keeping every shot and detailed notes on them. When he passed away, I was invited to help in cleaning out and organizing his office and the darkroom before it got sent to the library archives.

Good god. It was a mess. The man had countless images of Seattle being built over 40 years that were a fantastic record of history, but untold thousands more of test shots, poor exposures, random strangers, and other miscellanea, not to mention entire boxes of undeveloped rolls and sheets. I ended up declining for a number of reasons, and it's all sitting in storage now; someone told me it likely never will be fully catalogued. It would take someone years full-time to get through it all.

I've spent enough time in research archives to know that sometimes various ephemera is valuable—in researching an obscure home designed by a lesser-known local architect, finding original napkin sketches illuminated both the building and architect's history—but a lot of it is useless. (The same file was almost entirely filled with appliance cut sheets) I'm sure there are plenty of unprinted shots in his archive that will be fascinating to see, but only after sorting through the crap.

More importantly, most of us are not going to be lucky enough to have our entire work catalogued and archived, let alone sought out. And so what if some shots are lost to history before they ever make it that far?

Getting back to your original statement: Camus had a profound effect on me in, cheesy enough, a freshman philosophy class. Often when I'm out shooting for my own purposes I get that sinking feeling of 'why am I even doing this? Why does it all matter?' but that could be applied to virtually anything. There's a lot of self-seriousness in this (and many other hobbies) and I try not to fall into that.

 

[Takkun]

I took a look at your blog Ian and you make some exceptional photographs. You should get your ducks in a row...

I really appreciate that compliment more than I can really relate in a forum post...After another long break from even touching a camera (for numerous reasons), got back into it last fall and remembered how much satisfaction it brings, both to myself and others.

I've got five upcoming exhibitions, so I really do need to get things organized--that's my summer project as well.

Re: Capture One—I'm definitely leaning toward it. Apple Photos isn't enough control, and I'm not particularly fond of Adobe and their subscription model. I figure I bought the student edition of Aperture in 2006 so I've definitely gotten my money's worth.

 

[benlees]

Well, I suppose I say it because I sense it is probably true. Family pictures are one thing, but all the rest of it is self-indulgent dilettantism. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like making pictures as much as the next gal. But to suppose that anyone will care about those pictures after I am dead is just nonsense. And the overwhelming odds are that the same is true for nearly everyone.

I agree with this. I also think this statement is not negative; in fact I view it as positive as admitting to this does not contradict the idea that the making of anyone's work is still a fulfilling way to live. The idea it must be important to someone (anyone) besides yourself is an illusion that the future is better than the present. We all hope someone likes what we do, just don't bet on it...

My family had a huge drawer of family and work photos spanning decades. Maybe 1 in 20 had any sort of date or name written on it. Might as well have been looking at strangers; I guess I was!


Edit: I chucked a bunch of stuff last year. If you can't see the magic right away then there probably isn't any. Recheck in 6 months. YMMV.