This is the question that floated to the surface of my mind through a Benadryl induced fog. As I fight my latest bout of bronchitis I sit and ponder life’s tough questions. OK, so it’s not exactly a “What is the meaning of life?” type question. But it’s a fair question that was raised while I was browsing the net and reading some interesting post.
The first thing that planted the seed for this line of thinking was a report I read about a shoebox of glass plate negatives that were found in Edinburgh. A total of 178 negatives were found in a shoebox for a pair of grey, size 9, Peter Lord slip-ons, wrapped in copies of The Statesman newspaper date 1914. Can you imagine blowing the dust off this old shoebox to find a treasure like this? What I wouldn’t give to have been the one to find this. But more importantly, someone found them. A piece of history, hunk of heritage saved by a cardboard shoebox and old newspaper. How cool is that?
It got me thinking: How are we saving our history? My guess is we have more images made of our world in the last few years than in the combined previous history of analog photography. Yet, where are these digital images? Certainly not in some old shoebox wrapped in newspaper. Not in an old metal foot-locker like most of my old negatives and slides. Most are sitting on an iffy hard drive that is waiting to go bad. Hear me now when I say, I am not bemoaning progress. I love digital photography. But are we really thinking through how we are going to archive these images? I assume the museums are tackling this question. Many of us full-time photographers are attempting to address this as well. But what about the world’s families? Millions of people are storing millions of images that at the moment might seem insignificant, yet one day might give our grandchildren an insight into the culture we live in. Those glass plates, they were not from some professional photographer. They were just “snaps” of daily life in British India, that today are an invaluable look into history.
A Facebook friend and fellow photographer, Ian Furniss wrote, “I always worry a little about what will happen to the records of our lives since the demise of hard copy film, no long-lost hard drives found in the attic I guess…”
I guess, the quick answer is, the Internet. Unless the unthinkable happens and somehow we lose the Net, it will be our attic of sorts. It is not the same of course – virtual never is. We have already lost the tactile experience of the darkroom, how long will it be before we lose the experience of flipping through old photos with Grandma during Christmas visits? “Hey Granny, can we look at your old photos of you when you were young on your iPad?” Definitely not the same. Maybe digital photo books are the answer. The kind like Blurb, Lightroom and others offer us to bind and print our images for just a little work and a small price. But, who really uses them? I never used albums when I had prints. I used shoe boxes.
Then, just this weekend (I think I was the last to know about this) I saw this ad for aday.org.
Expressions of Humankind, a Swedish non-profit foundation came up this idea to have everyone photograph the same day around the world. This is not a new idea. People have been shooting simultaneous images of the world long before digital imagery. But the motivation for this is was struck a cord with me. It was as if they were reading my mind. Weird.
Why should I join?
“Because your life matters…. Because you like the thought of saving a little something of yourself for generations to come. Because your take on daily life is part of a much bigger picture.”
This is not the answer to my musing. I don’t think there is an answer. There is no digital dusty shoebox. But this is a nice attempt. I think I will do it for now, for today. I think I will get out and photograph tomorrow for other tomorrows. Want to join me?
