What’s Gonna Happen to Your Photographs?

[KoNickon]

Family pictures I've taken and that people care about have long since been distributed (and as far as I know, pitched in due course). All the rest of the stuff I've rarely looked at. Right now I am going through my 20 years of pictures and trying to discard the stuff that's not good technically or just not worth saving, and I'm sure at some point all the stuff I am keeping now will be thrown out. I've done this mainly for my own enjoyment, and I highly doubt anyone would want to be saddled with sorting through meaningless pictures after I'm gone.

 

[farlymac]

After my mother passed, there was still a lot of dad's art stuff that no one had claimed over the years he was gone. It surprised me that some of my siblings were not interested in it, mostly because they had one piece they really liked, and didn't care for the rest.

Now my dad wasn't any more than an amateur, just as I am with photography, but he had his own style. So I snagged as many of his lesser works as I could. Sure, they don't mean anything to anyone else, but I'm happy to have them. And they survive at least until I pass.

As to my photography, I suppose it will be more of the same thing as my dad's art work. Some of it will be cherished by family members, but most will be lost to history. And that doesn't bother me at all, because I won't be around to worry about it.

I do hope I have the time left to go through it all in order to make some sense of it for whomever gets the task of looking through the boxes. Right now it's 50 years of images that are barely sorted, and some negatives have been separated from the prints.

PF

 

[rbsinto]

I assume that any of my scanned images will simply be deleted, and any slides will likely be tossed into the trash. All of my street photography is of persons I didn't know and never met, so likely no one in my family will care.
But then I fully expect my wife to have me cremated and scatter my ashes in the cat's litter boxes.

 

[PhotoGog]

Recalling the final scene of Inglorious Basterds. At least when B&W film had nitrate one could use them to incinerate Nazis.

 

[PhotoGog]

But on a serious note, that is why the love of process is so vital - including the feel and handling of your favoured camera and developing by hand etc - because ultimately no one cares but you.

 

[Dralowid]

They will become some descendant's problem, or opportunity. In our attic are a couple of boxes of family negs, plates, slides and prints. I know who or what some of the subjects are but others are a mystery. Every few years I take a look, get interested and then put them to one side...and so it will be, I imagine, in the future. Takes far less effort to store the stuff than do anything with it!

 

[shimokita]

I have some of my dad's work on the wall and more in digital files that I periodically post on social media as "Throw Back Thursday"... actually family and friends love the TBT posts, but not the effort required.

One of the few positive aspects of social media ; )

My stuff... I value the process and interaction with people I meet... no expectations on what happens downstream... not sad at all...

 

[Out to Lunch]

When my parents died, I inherited the family photo albums going back to the early 20th Century. I understand that in the post-WWII years, only one uncle had a camera -I remember collecting his discarded flash cubes, and today these albums are in great demand. I think these photos will survive for another generation or two. With regards to most of the other stuff...dust to dust... it will, either eternally float in internet space, be deleted, or incinerated. Reminds me of the fact that the majority of Facebook accounts were opened by people who are now dead.

 

[mdg137]

I’ve been wrestling with this question quite a bit over the last few years— worrying more about digital files than negs, but both nonetheless.

One conclusion I’ve reached is that family will tend to filter out images of people they know, and dicscard the rest.

Another conclusion is that digital files are inherently more susceptible to loss than negs— I currently maintain my digital archive backed up triplicates on 3 external drives, stored in 3 locations, and I replace the drives at regular intervals. But, even if they’re maintained by me, no guarantee anyone else will when considering descent of multiple generations. And that’s IF someone is inclined to look through them.

So, I think we face 2 issues— survival of our images in general and survival of “art work” vs strictly family images.

Prints offer a solution to the former, but not the latter.

So, I think I’ve arrived at at least a semi-adequate solution. I am going through my archives, choosing images to print in high quality books— think linen covers and matching slip boxes, etc. I’m going to mix family stuff, the best of it, WITH my best artwork.

If future generations want the family history, they can bear the burden of a few art shots too!

 

[Larry Cloetta]

But on a serious note, that is why the love of process is so vital - including the feel and handling of your favoured camera and developing by hand etc - because ultimately no one cares but you.

I’d tend to agree with this, as I am not one of those who invariably tend to ***-pooh “the process”. The photo itself is just an artifact of the larger act of making the photo. Down the line, the photo may, or may not, be meaningful to others (“Oh, look, here’s one of uncle Jamie” “What a pretty flowerbed, I wonder where that was?”), but there are layers of meaning and context, and depth of feeling, connected to every artifact of the process (the tangible photo) which are never available to anyone except the photographer. Family, descendants, museum goers, may enjoy specific photos for one reason or another, but no one but you will ever be able to fully contextualize any of them. The storehouse of memories associated with that photo of a rock on the ground. So, yes, ultimately no one cares but you. They can’t possibly. Not at the level you do anyway.
For now, dare I say it, just enjoy the proccess.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

On the one hand: my father died ten years ago, and I have gone through the family archive of negatives seeking pictures that were never printed at the time they were taken. Because my father is gone, each of the images found is like a treasure.

On the other: because of my propensity for this sort of image-gleaning, I inherited my grandparents pictures and negatives. They were meticulously organized into cases by decade by my grandmother. But as others have said, no one in my family circle knows the identity of most of the folks in the pictures. They include, for instance, business buddies of my grandfather on fishing trips. . . . that sort of thing.

I can't bring myself to throw them out . . . part of the reason is my own fascination with images from 100 years ago. They are all interesting in some way, if only because they are a snapshot of a moment long gone. Those hats!

I think the march of technology is going to "solve" the problem of quadrillions of bits of data on hard drives all over the world. The memory will degrade and the file formats will eventually become unreadable. Anyone think a jpg will be machine readable in 100 years? That'd be an interesting bar bet.

 

[Kai-san]

Anyone think a jpg will be machine readable in 100 years? That'd be an interesting bar bet.

I expect there would be no winners of that bet. 😉

 

[Larry Cloetta]

“ Anyone think a jpg will be machine readable in 100 years?“

I hope nobody thinks that.

 

[willie_901]

Well, if someone is interested, they will live on... if not, they will die with me. IF you are only making family photos, the best is to truly break it down to the best of the best and make books. If you are an artist, it’s not up to you if your work survives.

This ^^^^^^^





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[willie_901]

I expect there would be no winners of that bet. 😉

No one knows.

However, I would bet a trivial method is in widespread use to convert JPEGs into what ever.

I do not subscribe to an apocalyptic view for the future. But any number of scenarios are possible where no digital technology exists 100 years from now.

 

[willie_901]

After I disappear, I expect anything I don't bother to print and anything where the people and perhaps the locations are not identified will disappear rather quickly

 

[Kai-san]

No one knows.

However, I would bet a trivial method is in widespread use to convert JPEGs into what ever.

I do not subscribe to an apocalyptic view for the future. But any number of scenarios are possible where no digital technology exists 100 years from now.

Maybe I should add to my comment to make it more understandable:


I expect there would be no winners of that bet because none of the contestants would live long enough to see who was right.

 

[Dogman]

Someone will archive my photographs, negatives, transparencies and drives. They will catalog all my works, publish them and hang them in places of honor. My work will be preserved. My photographs will live on in perpetuity.

Yeah. Right. Like that's ever gonna happen.

It often seems to me that no one today really cares much about preserving history. The newspaper I once worked for had an archive of negatives dating from just after World War II. Since the paper was a regional daily, it had a rich history of the area that included parts of three adjoining states. Before I left that job, the negatives were donated to a local university library where they were to be archived. A few years later, I spoke to one of the former editors of the paper and she told me the library was unable to locate any of those negatives. They had either been misplaced somewhere or mistakenly disposed of to make room for other material.

Since my photography is a personal creative outlet, I really have nothing anyone else cares about. None of my family and few of my friends have shown much interest in my work so I expect all of it will end up in a landfill.

 

[Pherdinand]

Hopefully they won't end up in the belly of an unfortunate sea animal.

 

[Pherdinand]

I’m already getting rid, more bluntly, throwing away many negatives and prints.

why? you gave up on life?

If i were you i would dig in and print some that i like. Have a kick out of it.