Daniel - how about give them to someone else to store? Ship 'em to me and I'll archive them in the attic of my father's barn along with my high school yearbooks. Give them to someone else to store and just forget about them. It's not hard, and someday if you want to get back at it, you're going to want those negatives. Even if you don't like the pictures any more than you do now, you'll learn something from them.
Good plan and offer.
I just was given 30 year old Polaroids from my ex-wifes estate, I am very glad to have them.
I had totally forgotten them, but now I remember shooting them.
Originally Posted by David R Munson
Tin Can
Been there. Burnt thousands of that stuff one snowy night. No I would not pretend there wasn't any drama in the action. Do I regret it? No, not too much. Why? Because today I know they weren't as good as I thought they were when I made them - and when I destroyed them, too. But do I think I'd better keep them? Yes I do. Why then? Because I still do remember those, and ever since that very night, my memory is cheating me badly, showing me the mental images that are way better then the actual photos were. And I'm sure I would get free from the burden of the past much faster if I could look at those gone pictures from time to time to appreciate the great improvement I made in the decades passed since that winter night....
That's all about the images that make more or less sense to me and do arise some feelings of course. And as for the ones I consider to be pure failures - I still trash lots and lots of those each day I get more film processed. And there is really no drama in getting rid of those. And no advertising goes to forums for the events like this. ;)
I save everything I shoot, and I used to scan everything. My failures are the most important because they help me develop my skills and vision.
Peter Y.
A lot of free advice, Daniel, I guess that is what you wanted --- here's a bit more!
If you consider yourself an artist, and find your negatives burdensome, then photography may not be your outlet. Have you lost the passion that you seemingly possesed a few years ago? No problem, try a different avenue of expression --- build furniture, draw, paint, sculpt, write poetry, become a tatoo artist (great future), play an instrument --- there is no end to the possibilities.
Nothing as dramatic as burning your negatives is necessary, although discarding some along the way is not a bad idea. How many photographs have you made that excite you? A half-dozen would seem an appropriate number at your age and years of practice. Don't expect a larger number. Have you talked to your mentor or mentors --- I know you had one who has dedicated most of his life to photography, I'm thinking of M.S.
Whatever path you choose, I know you will be successful.
Best regards,
Merg
I have a whole vault full of negatives, many are forty or fifty years old. I made those photographs but I have no personal connection to them at all. I do not consider them "mine" any more. But they grow more and more interesting as documents of time, of interiors of exteriors of cars of streets of clothing styles and so forth... Think about Eugene Atget. Only the Surrealists, Man Ray and Berenice Abbott with the financial support of Julien Levy managed to save his glass negatives from the waste dump. - I am not saying that you or I are anything close to the genius of Atget, but let others be the judges of that in due time. Burning or dissolving negatives in water is only for guys like Brett Weston who have absolutely no doubt about their position in photography and have spent decades making fine prints.
I watched 1600 rolls of 35mm film, some LF negatives, and a decent darkroom go up in flame when my darkroom burned down almost 30 years ago. Some of the negatives, properly catalogued and identified, would have historical value. It had been my intention to donate them where they could do good. It still hurts. Anyone who hopes to become wiser as they age should not hasten to destroy their past; it is the foundation of their future.
Daniel ... burn them ... don't look back ... you won't print them and neither will anybody else. I just did the same thing with my 30 binders of negatives. I think I kept one binder of about 100 shots ... and that was too many ... i should have thrown away at least 1/2 of those ... probably more.
Point forward and shoot new things that interest you ... all the old negatives do is weigh you down.
I think about the 40,000 negatives Ansel Adams donated to a university ... who cares? There are probably 50 that are great ... and those have been printed and reprinted. The other 39,950 are simply taking up space ... what are they worth? NOTHING.
Beautiful Mr. Jones!
nicely put
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