Your Photographic Legacy - What do you want to leave behind?

[batey_1020]

I have spent a lot of time in the past 12 months wondering what i want to leave behind. Im only young but the passing of my grandfather and having all his negatives, prints, cameras left to me to sort through has made the put more thought into what to do with my photography as i progress.

I have an amazing collection of wet prints by him of railways around Australia. I remember him saying at the time of his passing as we were talking about photography one of his regrets being not finishing his organising and scanning of his work. Sure digital is great and i have all the negative but they don’t come close to what i feel when i hold his prints from his darkroom. I put way more value on his prints i can hold then any of the negatives he scanned before his passing.

Im in the process of mounting his prints to preserve them and store them so i can share with the extended family when im done.

The recent print swap has made me see the quality of pigment printing on quality papers and what can be achieved so i have set about printing my photos of previous years so they can be preserved for the future also.

So in the digital world where everything is on the screen are you planning to leave behind a bunch of data on hard drives to more then likely never be looked at or are you printing with the thought that future generations will enjoy what you have left to them and appreciate the value in your artistic mind?

I would love to hear thoughts on there own work and also others who have had stuff left to them to pass on.

 

[lynnb]

There was an interesting article about this some time ago - I think it was by Ctein on TOP, but I may be wrong. I'll try to locate and link it.

I was left a large legacy of 35mm chromes, plus a modest collection of 620-film bw negatives from my father. I have scanned and printed quite a few. I'd like to put the highlights chronologically in a photo book, as I think that format has the greatest chance of being passed on. Must get to work on that project.

Digital images are more fragile than negs and prints IMHO. I've printed a lot of photos from my own family archives and intend to edit and make selects for photo books for my children. I also print my favourite personal work, storing the prints in albums by subject matter (landscapes, waves, dogs, etc). For digital and digitised images I write the image or scan file number on the back, in addition to subject, place and date or year taken (if I can remember!).

Your dad's collection of railway prints sounds like a collection to treasure, which may also be of interest for historical research. Have you considered contacting the Mitchell Library or national library to discuss?

 

[noisycheese]

Digital images are more fragile than negs and prints IMHO.

I will agree with lynnb on the above. This is one of the main reasons I have stuck with film based photography.

YMMV and if it does, that's okay.

 

[35mmdelux]

I have no pretense to fame and as far as photography is concerned I will only leave my Leica rangefinder behind and a few boxes of Kodachromes.

 

[MIkhail]

Every year I make year book (on blurb and likes) for each of my daughters.
All my best family shots are going in there. This is what I am planning on leaving behind (with some luck).

 

[lynnb]

I have no pretense to fame and as far as photography is concerned I will only leave my Leica rangefinder behind.

I think it's nice to leave some history of the family so future generations can see where they've come from, if they ever get curious. And if they ever idly wonder what sort of person I was, the pictures I treasured can give some clues. No fame sought!

I'm sure they'll appreciate the Leica 🙂

Cheers,

 

[Turtle]

I am printing all my good digital work for this reason.

I intend to leave behind prints. This is the finished work. Negs will be there for film work and files will be there for digital work.

My boys will get the lot, but hopefully that will be some way off...

 

[johannielscom]

One single shoebox with what I consider my best shots, under the bed.

If those don't tickle them enough to investigate the rest of my negatives and scanned files, they can ditch the whole lot😛

 

[v_roma]

This is what I am leaning towards as well. I have been meaning to do it but I have two small children that are very good at leading all my best laid plans astray 🙂

Every year I make year book (on blurb and likes) for each of my daughters.
All my best family shots are going in there. This is what I am planning on leaving behind (with some luck).

 

[John E Earley]

I want to leave lots of empty film canisters.

 

[batey_1020]

Your dad's collection of railway prints sounds like a collection to treasure, which may also be of interest for historical research. Have you considered contacting the Mitchell Library or national library to discuss?

It was actually my Grandfather. He was good at recording dates and locations on all the shots. Makes it very easy for me. My second hobby is model railways and i know a few people in historical societies who are interested in his collection but i have other plans to share them in a book that im working with a few of these people. Enjoying the process actually.

Im also up to my eyeballs in chromes. Out of the 7 grand kids it was up to me to do something with them. Im not doing to bad though going through them at a reasonaible pace and just to create digital collections for the rest of the family. Ive noted the really good images and will later go back and scan for printing in high quality but it just takes to long for now and gets in the way of my own.

It seems the esiest way these days is to produce books to pass on which some of you have. I think that was my grandfatehrs intention as he had scanned a lot. He was damn good on a computer for an 87 year old.

35mmdelux. I got my M4 passed on to me. Was an amazing feeling. I did the right thing and spent a lot of money to have it fixed / overhauled (basicaly could have bought another m4 for less).

I have printed a few 8x10s recently and am working on color prints that will all be mounted on 11x14 in the coming months. I think this is more for myself. I kep going back looking at the prints i have done from time to time more then my digital stuff.

 

[batey_1020]

One single shoebox with what I consider my best shots, under the bed.

If those don't tickle them enough to investigate the rest of my negatives and scanned files, they can ditch the whole lot😛

I like this idea. something interesting to promt someone to discover what other gems there are.

 

[Frida]

Every year I cull and edit down to 200-250 or so of the year's best images of my family and our life together. Then my wife makes an album out of them. Or at least, that's the plan. I've made the folder for 2010 (our first full year together), but am still working on the folders for 2011 and 2012. However, she's still making the 2010 album (I just gave her the folder for it a few days ago). Over the years, however, we should have an album cataloging each year of our life together, which will get rather fun to look at as we age and welcome little ones into our home (our first is due in a few months).

 

[semilog]

Fifty good prints of my immediate family members. Anything else is a bonus.

 

[35mmdelux]

I think it's nice to leave some history of the family so future generations can see where they've come from, if they ever get curious. And if they ever idly wonder what sort of person I was, the pictures I treasured can give some clues. No fame sought!

I'm sure they'll appreciate the Leica 🙂

Cheers,

Point well taken. Best Regards -

 

[DougFord]

Family pics are the only ones with any real value, everything else gets thrown into the pit.

 

[koven]

edit: misread the thread

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My son and his children, if he has any, will inherit my collection of images and the copyrights to them, and will hopefully continue making money selling and licensing them.

 

[Pablito]

I have an amazing collection of wet prints by him of railways around Australia....Im in the process of mounting his prints to preserve them and store them so i can share with the extended family when im done.

Mounting them is a big mistake. Any conservator will tell you that. You could mat them in an acid free mat, and make sure the print is held by archival corners, or hinged with rice paper. Or put them in an archival plastic sleeve and put the sleeved prints in an acid free storage box.

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art might be interested in the collection: http://www.railphoto-art.org/

 

[batey_1020]

Mounting them is a big mistake. Any conservator will tell you that. You could mat them in an acid free mat, and make sure the print is held by archival corners, or hinged with rice paper. Or put them in an archival plastic sleeve and put the sleeved prints in an acid free storage box.

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art might be interested in the collection: http://www.railphoto-art.org/

Yeah sorry i confused mounting with matting prints. My intention is to do as you discribed. And as a bonus its an excuse to buy more tools and things 🙂

Thanks for the railphoto link.