Olditmers... placing your archives with a final repository?

[Drew Wiley]

I'll be content if they bury me in something comfortable and not a suit and tie. But I won't have much control over that either. But I do know a family going through it right now. Won't give the name. It would be well known to our generation. But what to do with all those prints? They really don't have an answer, and these folks are really in the know. Then there was the fellow in the area who inherited a mountain of big name prints, including AA and EW, but not any stereotypical iconic ones. He managed to sell about 1/4 % of them and couldn't even donate the rest. Nobody wanted them. He lost money trying. Same goes for getting your 15min of fame. You might get a good museum show or whatever, but that doesn't mean they're going to collect anything more than a token print, if anything at all. Sometimes there are completely different budget and space protocols involved. Does any of this bother me? In a way, because I don't want my heirs to have headaches. So if I'm able, I'd probably try to slowly sell off my gear in advance, or leave behind instruction how best to do it. But I'll just keep making prints as long as I can. I can't prevent that anymore than you can prevent a gopher digging holes.

[Tin Can]

We need to get more creative. I know of a guy who got cremated and welded into his motorcycle gas tank. Von Dutch, California artist he. Many have been buried in their car. Perhaps we should insist we are planted sitting at a huge enlarger. Or welded inside a SS sink. Endless artful possibilities. I prefer, burn me and dump the ashes in the alley.

Drew, I actually have always wanted to die in the woods and let the critters take care of the problem.

Anything is better than a hospital or bed.

Rage, rage against the...

[Drew Wiley]

How my aunt did it was to hold a final sale and donate all the proceeds to a specific charity. All her large paintings were already in museums or protected by the Natl Historic Register, but there were lot of small sketches and watercolors. Her assistants rounded them up and she signed them on her deathbed. She also had a small watercolor pad there and kept making more, at least till they hauled here into the ICU. It was first-come, first-serve, with a set price of $6000 per sketch. It raised a considerable amount of money and solved the problem of the unassigned portion of the collection. Of course, this was a "natural death" situation where
there was some idea of when the sand would run out of the hourglass, so realistic plans could be made in advance.

[alanmcd]

An old acquaintance of mine from UNM beginning photo in the 70's, Robert Christensen, fell off the map and drove a grocery truck for 35 years. He photographed vernacular architecture across rural NM on his routes and in his spare time http://roswellmuseum.org/current/. I'd forgot about him till I ran across a splendid exhibit of his at the Albuquerque Museum. That exhibit traveled all over the state and his archive is now at the State Archives. He never made a dime off it but created a an exquisite, historically and aesthetically valuable body of work that is a fine legacy to him and his "hobby". It proves something I have thought and taught for decades in terms of ultimate recognition. Hard work and persistence trumps "genius". "Thematic projects" that have a dual character (historic documentation and art) trump random sporadic good or even great photographs. Finish your damn projects no matter how many decades it takes and when they are finished show them around.

Richard Wasserman from Chicago, who posts here has a largely similar story, and has produced some great projects (The Chicago River) that are valuable historically and aesthetically and are a fine legacy to his "hobby".

I can't agree more. I am working on a body of work. I have contacted the State Library in an attempt to further tailor this work to something they find unequivocally attractive to their collection. It's a measure of my persistence. It's not un-artistic. It's thematic and thorough in coverage. I can't imagine doing all this work and then letting it blow forth in the winds of time. But it needs to be a body or work to be recognised.
Alan

[DrTang]

I'm only going to take one LEICA. Wherever I'm going, they will either have Kodachrome II or (the other place) no film at all!

the other place only has polachrome

[Bill_1856]

the other place only has polachrome

lol!

[Shootar401]

The wise financial strategy if the IRS might place value on a collection is to designate a certain amount to an institution, analogous to a living trust, effective with
decease. Otherwise, your family might get assessed for the whole collection based upon just a handful of peak sales! It's rare, but has hit certain individuals on
their radar. In the worst cases, some poor widow gets her house seized because some painter suddenly got "discovered" after his death, a painting sold for a ton
of money, and forty are fifty are left at home. The poor dude might not have ever sold one in his own lifetime! Rare, but not impossible. And the widow might
not ever be able to sell the rest of the prints for anything. It could be a fluke sale. Estate planning is always a good idea, and not just a will.

As long as you do it carefully and have people who you trust take care of things for you after you die, you can transfter, sell or donate anything without the IRS knowing. Plus they have no need to meddle in your affairs after you are gone.

[Memyself]

I'm sure that most cities and towns have some sort of historical society. It has been my experience that they tend to be very interested in all types of photos that pertain to their location. The city where I live has an active historical society that maintains a collection of thousands of photographs depicting all aspects of times past here. Some are street scenes, some are single buildings, others reflect significant events or landscape scenes prior to development, while others record everyday life. Many date from the early 1900's (or earlier), but many are much more recent. While some were taken by professionals, it is obvious that many are snapshots taken by non-professionals. To help fund the historical society, prints from these photos and negatives can be purchased. Many commercial buildings (office, restaurant, etc.) use the photos to decorate their walls. My experience is that most people enjoy looking at these old pictures whether it be for the old cars, clothing styles, or hair styles. My point is that just because someone is not a "professional" does not mean that their photos should be tossed out. Why not make a provision in your will that would allow your survivors to keep any photos they want and then bequeath the collection to your local historical society. If they don't want them, let them dispose of them. Who knows, there might just be something of historical interest!

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to Large Format Photography Forum

[Tin Can]

I'm making my own time capsule. Maybe I'll have my dust self put in there.