I cracked up the other day watching a clip on YouTube from one of The Next Generation Star Trek movies and I got to hear Geordie repeat his variation of the Spock mantra, “Captain, it appears to be a primitive data storage device” as he manipulated a salt shaker or some other exotically shaped article tracked down by Props!
If it “really didn’t matter” then people wouldn’t take any photos at all. But part of the reason why we use the technology today is because of what it means: the ability to capture history, whether that’s the documentation of atrocities such as the Holocaust or a family member who loves his or her children.
Good point. The photographic record supplements the written and oral records so we can have an accurate history of both the depths and heights that the human race can reach. This is the work of our museums - keep whatever is "museum worthy" (but not all in one place or in one medium).
After 15 years of dithering and sorting, this year I finally finished scanning as well as reprinting a lifetime of photos, and putting them all into hardcopy albums. In the process, I discarded more than 1500 pre digital photos (so many divorces 🤣). The family history dating back around 150 years to the present exists and is backed up. Whether or not grandchildren or great grandchildren will be interested, who knows, but I've done my bit.
I took a lot of 35mm film pictures, from 1963 - 2004. When digital came, they went into storage. Recently I started hunting through them - the commercially printed paper colour prints were mostly sepia, and I suspect the negatives were, too. Most were 'happy snaps' of family and long-forgotten 'friends'. It hurt, but I discarded them. The digital pictures from 2004 to the present are on my PC, a backup hard drive and in an off-site storage - OneDrive.
I am a baby Boomer and up in years. Still very mobile and active.
Existing in our storage unit are a couple of boxes of photos going back some fifty something years. Pictures of us as a family and of them. They may have some value to our three. I think we will parcel them out and let them decide what they wish to do with them. Those pictures are forever.
What will be lost are the weeks and months, I have spent working in various states, countries and on other continents. I am and was supply chain and went where told to go to fix the issues we helped to create. During that time, I wandered Germany, France, Czech Republic, etc. I was in and out of China, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia each year on planned trips. I had time to tour and was allowed to do so. In the US and as a consultant, customers would take us places. Working independently, I would explore and hike so as to stay out of bars. I can talk about what I have seen but they will be lost. And that in addition to three+ years in the military late sixties and early seventies.
How do you categorize such experiences?
Reading your commentary, the comments, and my words . . . it is beginning to sound like Batty's last moments after he pulls Deckard to safety.
The more we move to digital platforms for our “stuff” the faster we lose it. Physical copies of encyclopedias and dictionaries were slower to access but were incontrovertibly factual, and didn’t require a power source to operate. We lose something when we choose to rely on technology that eventually becomes obsolete, like Beta or VHS video tapes.
My wife had Super 8 movies from her childhood and I expensivly converted them to VHS and somehow it got tossed out with the other VHS and of course I hadn't hung on to the film. You are right, good quality archival paper prints are best.
I cracked up the other day watching a clip on YouTube from one of The Next Generation Star Trek movies and I got to hear Geordie repeat his variation of the Spock mantra, “Captain, it appears to be a primitive data storage device” as he manipulated a salt shaker or some other exotically shaped article tracked down by Props!
Great stuff, Lloyd.
I will be in the UK in two weeks. Lets meet.
https://substack.com/@crwolfelaw/note/c-50493273?r=1wh4yj&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
There and Gibraltar in the next couple of weeks but much more in Seattle these days.
Does it really matter? Pre-1839, there were NO photos.
If it “really didn’t matter” then people wouldn’t take any photos at all. But part of the reason why we use the technology today is because of what it means: the ability to capture history, whether that’s the documentation of atrocities such as the Holocaust or a family member who loves his or her children.
Good point. The photographic record supplements the written and oral records so we can have an accurate history of both the depths and heights that the human race can reach. This is the work of our museums - keep whatever is "museum worthy" (but not all in one place or in one medium).
After 15 years of dithering and sorting, this year I finally finished scanning as well as reprinting a lifetime of photos, and putting them all into hardcopy albums. In the process, I discarded more than 1500 pre digital photos (so many divorces 🤣). The family history dating back around 150 years to the present exists and is backed up. Whether or not grandchildren or great grandchildren will be interested, who knows, but I've done my bit.
I took a lot of 35mm film pictures, from 1963 - 2004. When digital came, they went into storage. Recently I started hunting through them - the commercially printed paper colour prints were mostly sepia, and I suspect the negatives were, too. Most were 'happy snaps' of family and long-forgotten 'friends'. It hurt, but I discarded them. The digital pictures from 2004 to the present are on my PC, a backup hard drive and in an off-site storage - OneDrive.
After I die - who will care? We have no children.
Llyod:
I am a baby Boomer and up in years. Still very mobile and active.
Existing in our storage unit are a couple of boxes of photos going back some fifty something years. Pictures of us as a family and of them. They may have some value to our three. I think we will parcel them out and let them decide what they wish to do with them. Those pictures are forever.
What will be lost are the weeks and months, I have spent working in various states, countries and on other continents. I am and was supply chain and went where told to go to fix the issues we helped to create. During that time, I wandered Germany, France, Czech Republic, etc. I was in and out of China, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia each year on planned trips. I had time to tour and was allowed to do so. In the US and as a consultant, customers would take us places. Working independently, I would explore and hike so as to stay out of bars. I can talk about what I have seen but they will be lost. And that in addition to three+ years in the military late sixties and early seventies.
How do you categorize such experiences?
Reading your commentary, the comments, and my words . . . it is beginning to sound like Batty's last moments after he pulls Deckard to safety.
The more we move to digital platforms for our “stuff” the faster we lose it. Physical copies of encyclopedias and dictionaries were slower to access but were incontrovertibly factual, and didn’t require a power source to operate. We lose something when we choose to rely on technology that eventually becomes obsolete, like Beta or VHS video tapes.
My wife had Super 8 movies from her childhood and I expensivly converted them to VHS and somehow it got tossed out with the other VHS and of course I hadn't hung on to the film. You are right, good quality archival paper prints are best.
Have you tried internet archive for getting a look at your old posts?
its hard because you really need the URL to find it, their search function is terrible.