I think the trick is to identify a person or organisation that's interested in one's photographs, cull ruthlessly and then make it as simple as possible for that person or organisation to sort them, view them and understand their context (what, when, who, where, why). I'm convinced that digitising the photos, whether by scanning or by photographing the prints or negatives (can be done with a smartphone), goes a long way to fulfilling the third objective. The context can be conveyed with a paired note in a format that will be readable by any computer for the foreseeable future (plain text or rich text using an app like TextEdit or Notepad++) or with a plain text embedded or sidecar metadata file (the
IPTC format will likewise be readable long-term).
Compared to using Adobe or Capture One to provide contextual information,
Photo Mechanic (US$139) is more user-friendly for both the photographer and people who view his/her photographs. For example, it's possible to customise your IPTC template so that it contains only the fields that you want to use. In the example below, a landscape photographer could get rid of another five fields. With a little thought, entering most information can be done with a mouse click. As the second screen capture shows, it's also easy to make a search as broad or as narrow as one wants. Note that the search window reflects the customisation of the IPTC template. This is also one of those unusual situations where a simple, dated user interface just works better than the contemporary interfaces of apps like Lightroom and Capture One. Even if all three of the companies that make these apps go out of business tomorrow, there will be apps available that can read IPTC-format metadata.
IPTC Template
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