Recently I have been spending a lot of time going over family photos going back over a hundred years.
What camera, lens, f/stop, film, developer, megapickles, post processing makes no difference to me at all in terms of appreciating these photos.
I care about the people and events. Most of the pics are terrible by photography standards, taken by photogs who were barely able to load the camera, much less know how to use the camera to its best advantage.
Yet these images are dear to me, of my family, of my history. Many pics are probably the only surviving images of those long gone family and events.
Even pics taken with the simplest least expensive cameras, taken by the world's worst photographers, are still important records of times gone past.
Just as important is photography's democratizing and sharing of the human experience.
George Eastman's "Press the button, we do the rest" concept allowed photography into every day life. It was not just for the rich any more.
It does not take a great camera or a great lens or a great photographer to capture what becomes a loved image. BUT it does take a photog who wanted to save that moment and share that image.
A toast to the innumerable photogs who took the time and made the effort to share all of those countless out of focus, poorly exposed, badly composed, poorly printed mediocre images that are so important and loved by us all.
Stephen
What camera, lens, f/stop, film, developer, megapickles, post processing makes no difference to me at all in terms of appreciating these photos.
I care about the people and events. Most of the pics are terrible by photography standards, taken by photogs who were barely able to load the camera, much less know how to use the camera to its best advantage.
Yet these images are dear to me, of my family, of my history. Many pics are probably the only surviving images of those long gone family and events.
Even pics taken with the simplest least expensive cameras, taken by the world's worst photographers, are still important records of times gone past.
Just as important is photography's democratizing and sharing of the human experience.
George Eastman's "Press the button, we do the rest" concept allowed photography into every day life. It was not just for the rich any more.
It does not take a great camera or a great lens or a great photographer to capture what becomes a loved image. BUT it does take a photog who wanted to save that moment and share that image.
A toast to the innumerable photogs who took the time and made the effort to share all of those countless out of focus, poorly exposed, badly composed, poorly printed mediocre images that are so important and loved by us all.
Stephen
jmilkins
Digited User
I'll raise a glass and say cheers to that Stephen. I've spent some time going through negs and transparencies from my parent's and grandparent's time recently. It has been a delightful adventure with lashings of nostalgia to boot. The photographs are special as is still having couple of the cameras on which they were taken.
Pál_K
Cameras. I has it.
ellisson
Well-known
And thus the emergence and success of mobile phone photography, ever-more effective in capturing moments, always handy, always ready to share. And with a plethora of apps to post-process and create, e.g., varying color, rendering, and textures, I'm finding a new way of seeing, radical as this may seem to many. Greater possibilities lie ahead with this technology.
charjohncarter
Veteran
Years ago asked to copy this slide, just because I thought it was a winner. My friend asked her father if I could copy it. Later he gave it to me: 1946 in Virginia according to him (credit to W.K. Amonette):
Found photos-April 1946 by John Carter, on Flickr
Found photos-April 1946 by John Carter, on Flickr
jim_jm
Well-known
However, one downside to digital is that many of these images are never printed and thus lost in a sea of thousands of other images and possibly forgotten or erased. For the photo enthusiast who makes an effort to organize and backup their images, this may not be a concern, but imagine all the millions of casual snapshots taken on phones each year that will never be physically saved or seen, other than shared with family & friends on Facebook or Instagram.
A neighbor recently asked me to print some family negatives he inherited that dated back to the early 1900's. He had never seen prints of these and was very curious to see what they were. They had been stored in an attic for decades until recently discovered.
These were medium-format rollfilm negatives and I had negative carriers that allowed me to make darkroom prints for my neighbor. He was very pleased to have these.
A neighbor recently asked me to print some family negatives he inherited that dated back to the early 1900's. He had never seen prints of these and was very curious to see what they were. They had been stored in an attic for decades until recently discovered.
These were medium-format rollfilm negatives and I had negative carriers that allowed me to make darkroom prints for my neighbor. He was very pleased to have these.
Attachments
Timmyjoe
Veteran
Well put Stephen.
Best,
-Tim
Best,
-Tim
raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
Recently, i was going throught the pictures i took as a teenager. Found this one which is taken with my first real camera - a practica BMS electronic together with a cheap practicar zoom 28-70. The year is somewhere in the mid-90's, possibly '94 or '95. It is a Ektachrome elite 100 slide film. Picture wise, it does not look sharp on any size bigger than 900pixels.
It pictures my parents together with my grandmother and my uncle - all of them have passed away. Also the place looks nothing like it now, those old wooden huts are knocked down, and most of those trees are gone too - i used to spend my summer time there as a child, they are right next to the sea.
Technically a bad picture but a very precious for me.
It pictures my parents together with my grandmother and my uncle - all of them have passed away. Also the place looks nothing like it now, those old wooden huts are knocked down, and most of those trees are gone too - i used to spend my summer time there as a child, they are right next to the sea.
Technically a bad picture but a very precious for me.
raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
It's very nice. I love the colors!
Out to Lunch
Ventor
A very nice picture. Reminds me of similar vacation houses around Lake Balaton in Hungary. Today, many have been bulldozed to make way for spa's, conference centers and five-star hotels.
Brian Atherton
Well-known
I have been documenting and researching my family history since my uncle died in 1999. On my paternal side I have got back 1830; my maternal, 1690.
I have inherited a fair few boxes of black and whites of relatives going back to the 1920s and possibly beyond, all taken by the simplest of fixed lens box cameras. Though of poor quality all are of interest.
My biggest frustration, though, is knowing that the people depicted in these family outings, weddings and holidays are my close relatives but, alas, none of the photos include names, dates or locations, so I cannot identify anyone beyond my own generation.
I have inherited a fair few boxes of black and whites of relatives going back to the 1920s and possibly beyond, all taken by the simplest of fixed lens box cameras. Though of poor quality all are of interest.
My biggest frustration, though, is knowing that the people depicted in these family outings, weddings and holidays are my close relatives but, alas, none of the photos include names, dates or locations, so I cannot identify anyone beyond my own generation.
JohnBeeching
Well-known
It is both interesting and potentially embarrassing to go back in time through old photographs. In the autumn, while convalescing from and operation, I scanned, edited negatives that I have taken in the late 1960's and put up a selection in an album, Shoebox, on my Flickr stream. You are welcome to look at them starting here:
Shoebox 1: The negatives by John Beeching, on Flickr
Shoebox 1: The negatives by John Beeching, on FlickrOut to Lunch
Ventor
Hi John, it took me a little while but then I found your shoe box. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnbeeching/albums/72157711298361491 Cheers OtL.
Paulbe
Well-known
John--excellent photos!
Thank you!
Paul
Thank you!
Paul
JohnBeeching
Well-known
Paul,
Glad you like them.
John
Glad you like them.
John
charjohncarter
Veteran
Recently, i was going throught the pictures i took as a teenager. Found this one which is taken with my first real camera - a practica BMS electronic together with a cheap practicar zoom 28-70. The year is somewhere in the mid-90's, possibly '94 or '95. It is a Ektachrome elite 100 slide film. Picture wise, it does not look sharp on any size bigger than 900pixels.
It pictures my parents together with my grandmother and my uncle - all of them have passed away. Also the place looks nothing like it now, those old wooden huts are knocked down, and most of those trees are gone too - i used to spend my summer time there as a child, they are right next to the sea.
Technically a bad picture but a very precious for me.
Technically a good picture, very nice image; Central America?
robert blu
quiet photographer
Thanks Stephen for this interesting thread.
In these days I'm working on a dummy for a book with old pictures related to my wife and her family before getting married.
Photos have been taken by her parents when she was a child, or by relatives and friends. And when grown up a little she took as well many pictures. MAny of them with a Kodak Instamatic.
They are small, sometimes out of focus or anyway blurred and even scanning with attention cannot be printed very large.
But there is life in them, their is her life and the life of her family and friends.
It's a long work but worthwile to be done!
And for the photos in my shoebox I am lucky that my Mom always took note of whom and when or where...here I'm on a very old Polaroid (do you remember the swinger?) a few years ago...
In these days I'm working on a dummy for a book with old pictures related to my wife and her family before getting married.
Photos have been taken by her parents when she was a child, or by relatives and friends. And when grown up a little she took as well many pictures. MAny of them with a Kodak Instamatic.
They are small, sometimes out of focus or anyway blurred and even scanning with attention cannot be printed very large.
But there is life in them, their is her life and the life of her family and friends.
It's a long work but worthwile to be done!
And for the photos in my shoebox I am lucky that my Mom always took note of whom and when or where...here I'm on a very old Polaroid (do you remember the swinger?) a few years ago...
Huss
Veteran
It is both interesting and potentially embarrassing to go back in time through old photographs. In the autumn, while convalescing from and operation, I scanned, edited negatives that I have taken in the late 1960's and put up a selection in an album, Shoebox, on my Flickr stream. You are welcome to look at them starting here:
Love those pics! Especially of your Dad, the motorbike, the tug o war and the person smoking while working the bottle washing machine!