What will happen to your negatives in "the end"?

[bmikiten]

These are great and insightful comments. I do wonder about all the photographers of the past who left us with fascinating yet simple images of day-to-day life around the world. I know in my heart that video, iPhones, etc have taken their place now in our hyper-documented world but there are still places for photographs that depict the artist's point of view - the moment in time. There is something to be said for simply burning or shredding negatives especially when you consider those left behind.

[r.e.]

We're well into the digital age, and even a prolific photographer with a long career can put his/her images, writings, etc. on a small thumb drive and donate copies to multiple institutions, which without much work can make them available online. A small donation from the photographer or estate could guarantee the digital archive will be available for a long time, with some funds left over to support the hosting institution. I don't know of anyone doing this yet, but it seems likely it's happening or will soon. Digital storage is cheap and getting cheaper.

But the physical items, yeah...

I think that you've put your finger on something that some photographers should be thinking about. I'm involved in two communities that have active historical societies that are very interested in acquiring photographs of their communities. Having searched for historical photographs of these communities myself, I was surprised at how little exists. It's unusual to come across worthwhile prints, let alone negatives. One thing that's become clear to me is that ordinary people who took photos, or their descendants, didn't keep negatives, and in almost all cases the prints, if they exist, are quite small. One might think old photographs of New York City neighbourhoods are plentiful, but that isn't the case.

Outside the work of professionals whose work was/is considered significant, my impression is that very little has survived the death of the photographer. It's also not easy to find what does exist, because it requires labour intensive, time consuming work going through archives. It's analogous to looking for a needle in a haystack. I'm living in a nationally-designated Historic District for which there is very little historical photographic record.

People who have images in digital form are in a position to help ensure that photographic records of the 2020's are a lot better than what we have for the decades before 2000.

[ic-racer]

My negatives will be fine, they are easy to store and manage. However, my wife only took digital files of the kids. About 15 yeats ago she put all the files on an external drive. Who knows what format the drive is in, plus she cant even find the cord for it. Realistically, who is going to go to the trouble of and expense of trying to maintain a digital archive.
A digital archive needs continuous attention, always being one drive failure or retired operating system away from losing everything.
I see Apple has a new drive format for SSD. I suspect the old spinning disk journaled format will eventially be unreadable by a future OS.

[r.e.]

My negatives will be fine, they are easy to store and manage. However, my wife only took digital files of the kids. About 15 yeats ago she put all the files on an external drive. Who knows what format the drive is in, plus she cant even find the cord for it. Realistically, who is going to go to the trouble of and expense of trying to maintain a digital archive.
A digital archive needs continuous attention, always being one drive failure or retired operating system away from losing everything.
I see Apple has a new drive format for SSD.

I'm just one of the many, many millions of people who have maintained digital music and films for a couple of decades, including ripping them from their original hard disk formats as storage came down in price. Like countless others, I ripped my entire CD collection in order to get rid of the physical disks, which were a nuisance to "store and manage". I got rid of the rather expensive CD player too.

Recovering the photographs of your kids from your 15 year old hard drive is not only not rocket science, it's quite straightforward. Either get a replacement cable or take the drive out of its current enclosure. It comes down to whether you care enough about the photos of your kids to do that.

Apple's "new" drive format, APFS, has existed for five years. It's replacing previous drive formats. Mac users are not "losing everything". The only people who "lose everything" due to a drive failure are people who fail to back up their drives despite being told repeatedly to do so.

A comment about this: "My negatives will be fine, they are easy to store and manage." Some years ago, I had a tour of the premises of Beken of Cowes, the world's most important photographer of sailing vessels. The company's glass plates and negatives, going back 130 years, were stored on the premises. They were a fire from the entire collection being lost. What were they doing about it? They were starting to make digital scans of all of the photographs.

[Michael E]

If we want to place our archives with an institution, we better start labeling stuff. The Ws: Where, when, who, what, why. It makes a huge difference if the receiving institution has to hire extra staff to do the research or not. It's the difference between treasure and trash. Let's label our images while the memory is still there.

Yes, our images will some day become historical witnesses (if they aren't already). No, we should not take our heirs' opportunity to choose themselves what is worth keeping. I keep telling my parents not to clean up the attic, because they throw away the wrong stuff. They get rid of the things with emotional meaning for me and my brother and keep worthless junk that can be replaced any day on ebay.

Sorry for the rant. I have no idea what will happen to my images. My son is 18, who knows what his future interests will be. I'm not famous enough to entertain the idea of a museum or archive as a recipient.

[bmikiten]

Great point on labeling. I noticed this in my own work. Very often, I'd label the PrintFile sleeves with developer information but not location or dates. I'm fixing as much of that as possible now by - believe it or not - correlating it with iPhone images from the last 15 years. There is something to be said for taking quick documentation shots of sites before hauling out the 4x5 or 8x10!

[Alan Klein]

My negatives will be fine, they are easy to store and manage. However, my wife only took digital files of the kids. About 15 yeats ago she put all the files on an external drive. Who knows what format the drive is in, plus she cant even find the cord for it. Realistically, who is going to go to the trouble of and expense of trying to maintain a digital archive.
A digital archive needs continuous attention, always being one drive failure or retired operating system away from losing everything.
I see Apple has a new drive format for SSD. I suspect the old spinning disk journaled format will eventially be unreadable by a future OS.

I have 60-year-old photo albums with little prints. It has a better chance of surviving than any digital files. So, the lesson is making prints of you best pictures and give them as gifts to friends and family, framed particularly. Those will survive more likely while giving pleasure in the meanwhile to you and them.

[r.e.]

Great point on labeling. I noticed this in my own work. Very often, I'd label the PrintFile sleeves with developer information but not location or dates. I'm fixing as much of that as possible now by - believe it or not - correlating it with iPhone images from the last 15 years. There is something to be said for taking quick documentation shots of sites before hauling out the 4x5 or 8x10!

One advantage of using a phone to make photos of analogue photographs, or of the scene when making an analogue photograph, is that you can use IPTC's format to input information about the shot and keywords to make searching easy. All photo archivists are aware of the IPTC format, and it's so widely used that it's unlikely to be obsolete for the foreseeable future. People who use Lightroom, Capture One, etc. can already do this. For those who don't... just about all news organisations and photojournalists use Photo Mechanic, but my understanding is that there are apps that are much cheaper, and some that are free, that may work fine for occasional use.

[Alan Klein]

There is so much data created everyday of all kinds by everyone. There seems to be some idea that this information is so important it must be preserved. Why? Everyone wants to be remembered, I get it. But others could care less. How much info do we really need to store anyway? For what benefit, really? It becomes a time-wasting and boring job that few really care about except the storer.

I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul.

"Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body."
.... Ecclesiastes 12:12

[r.e.]

There is so much data created everyday of all kinds by everyone. There seems to be some idea that this information is so important it must be preserved. Why? Everyone wants to be remembered, I get it. But others could care less. How much info do we really need to store anyway? For what benefit, really? It becomes a time-wasting and boring job that few really care about except the storer.

As I've said in post #22, when I make photographs I often have in mind two historical societies, one in New York and one in rural Newfoundland. This became a factor when I discovered that there is very little photographic record of my New York Historic District or of the rural area where my Newfoundland summer home is located. I talked in post #22 about New York. A few years ago I spent some time in Dorset, Hampshire and Guernsey researching buildings, paintings and records that have a bearing on the history of my part of Newfoundland. I found a lot of material, some of it going back hundreds of years, but only six photos. They were negatives shot with a medium format camera by a gentleman who was important in both England and Newfoundland. I was excited until I had a good look at the negatives and discovered that they were all out of focus

As part of that trip, I also learned a lot about southern England and the Island of Guernsey. I had only seen Guernsey before while crossing the English Channel in a sailboat (surfing a Channel Islands tidal stream in a sailboat at 18 knots - 21mph, 33kph - is quite an experience), and knew about Guernsey mostly from the wonderful, and important, novel The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. I also acquired a better understanding of Guernsey's complicated World War II history, and visited Victor Hugo's home in exile (he had accused Louis Napoléon Bonaparte of treason), Hugo's approach to interior design being unconventional and interesting.

Do I think that this is all "time-wasting" and "boring"? Not the words that I would choose.

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, NYRB Classics,
Introduction by John Fowles