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Someone asked us if we could burn down an abandoned house a while back. It turned out that the structure wasn’t stable enough to work inside and had too many close trees, so we turned down the request. The house had belonged to a very nice older man who had passed. When we inspected the house I noticed boxes of family photos that were unwanted and would have been destroyed with the home. I’m not sure whatever happened - the house is still standing (badly). It got me thinking about how photos of our lives have changed.
I remember the old drill of getting film processed and going through the prints; we still have a few albums and boxes of photos from years past. But in this century we shoot pics with digital cameras and phones and then try to keep the files organized; thousands of pictures stacked up. Trying to find the record of a given event can be challenging.
And when we pass what will happen to our huge cloud and device folders of pictures? Will they sit unviewed for decades until the servers are gone? Kind of sad, but maybe no different from abandoned prints in a box.
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Discussion (18)
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Just checked my phone: 2668 pictures . . .
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My husband asks this question a lot. He doesn't think today's youth care enough about these things to want them. I don't think it's universal. There are 2 in our family (one from each side) who would be happy to have them.
Don't get my husband started on this! He is very meticulous about our pictures. He is always trying to get people to sort out their digital pictures.
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I once heard someone say something to the effect that we’re still around as long as there is one person with a living memory of our existence. After that we’re just a name on a ledger or an unknown face in an old photograph.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, ones and zeros to ones and zeros…
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I’ve taken to making books of the various snaps and posed pictures taken at events or just a good visit. I ask our daughter in law for her favorites and/or best (she actually does it for a living so they are very good.) I make a copy for me and 1 for our son. I made 1 for a granddaughter who starts every visit looking at the pictures on my iPad. It was her best of for the year. The kids love to be the stars. Easy software and soft cover versions are not expensive. I assume anything on a hard drive is lost. The cloud is just someone else’s hard drive. *added - I happen to use Motif and they almost always have a 20% off sale. Currently it’s Laborday.
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Everybody should have a clause in their will to donate all their old photos/videos/audio recordings to their country's national archives.
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