During my winter hibernation I have taken on a project I wouldn't normally have time for. But colder temperatures and lack of daylight have forced me to spend a lot more time indoors. I also notice even with winter training I spend a lot more time watching TV or idling doing less. I know I should be using this time to study for profesional exams, the GMAt or something academic, but after working all day I am lacking focus and concentration.
A few years ago one of my parents had a fire in a shed, while fortunately not much of value was lost except for a very sturdy wagon hand built by my dad. The wagon at some point I have plans to rebuild. Not because I need it, but because it would be a cool project to get my dad to help me with. And I can give it to my kid(s) to play with some day. I'm also toying with the idea of making a copy to give to my nephew.
Last year my other parent had a flood in their basement. MI'm nto using names because my parents hate when I mention them in my blog. Fortunately again not much of value was destroyed. Sure some carpet and an old couch was thrown out, but most things survived. Again all of these things and what was destroyed are just that, things. However, among the boxes of stuff quickly being relocated to higher ground was a cardboard box full of photos. These cover at least the past several decades. Some of them are of vacations and other events, others are most likely not important at all. Their not organized or put into photo albums so their is no easy way to tell whats there.
This caused me to realize that I have all of my photos from the past decade stored digitally. And I have the originals and the negatives from the days I had a film camera achieved in box in my parents basement as well as a backup digital copy. At least I used a plastic box. However, everything from before 1999 is still in analogue form .
The reason is that in 1999 it became really easy and inexpensive to get a CD with a copy of all your photos returned when you developed them. The downside to the analogue is that is stored only in one location and the prints and negatives steadily deteriorate over time. The effect is actually quite rapid and quickly noticeable as colors become distorted. Black and whites seem to age more gracefully into a yellow and gray. However color photos become darker and the yellows start to disappear. Further the analog form takes up space that i don't have so their likely to be stored away somewhere where I can't easily get them. And their fragile so their not likely to be handled readily. Much of how I interact with personal media is now digital. I'm more likely to flip through photos on my laptop or on an iPad then to dig a book out of the attic.
This may beg the question, why are these pictures so important or why take the effort to preserve them. People place varying degrees of importance on photos, some are happy with a grainy horribly lit self taken photo from a cell phone in a bar that is rapidly uploaded and spread across the vast internet. Others would favor a carefully posed, and possibly heavily doctored photo taked with meticulous quality. I sometimes thing the later group would prefer the picture not taken of them, but instead taken of the person they think they look like.
My recent interest in photography has led to an interest in preserving the pictures of that which I can not possibly photograph, and that is what has already happened. For example I can't for any amount of photographic genius photograph my own childhood. Instead I have to rely on what was already taken. In this their is an intrinsic value in these pictures, even the less then perfect ones, in that they are the raw unadulterated, but thoroughly honest image of the past. Combined these are the illustrations to the narrative that is my life. Even less then perfect they are extremely provocative in stirring up old memories or explaining stories told. Reminding me just how rustic the farm I grew up on was as a small child. Instead of the more yuppie golf course looking estate it became. I also recognize certain toys and other things long ago forgotten.
As part fo this project to retrieve, digitize and store these images I've also gon through one of my Moms old photo albums from the 1970's. I don't know many of the people or understand why many of them where selected to be remembered. All the photos here are before my time, but they are loaded with the illustrations from stories I have heard, which makes the intriguing to see. Pictures of my Grandfathers old Mustang, my Dads Triumph motorcycle, a row boat, the horse my Mom used to ride, and even a boat lift and a flag pole I have heard referred to many times but have never seen.
Perhaps I must be getting a bit older to appreciate such nostalgia. But the images of my life add color and perhaps even a 3-D (3-D is supper trendy right now) effect to my memory.
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