Print your work. We hear this so often, but still find ways to put it off. We finally bit the bullet and got some new prints for our living room. Over a week later, I am still obsessed with how they look. They turned out better than I could imagine and look so much stronger in print hanging on a wall than on a screen. Seeing them large reminds you of standing in the same scene where the photo was taken. Mission accomplished.

Printing photos for a wall is one thing, but that is not realistic to hang every photo you would like. Eventually you will run out of wall space or cohesion. Photo books are another great way to pull those photos off a screen and into your hands. Below are artifact uprising, but I know blurb and a lot of other places have great options.

The very talented Iain Farrell hosts a podcast labeled “prime lenses” and recently had Kay O’Connell on as a guest. One thing they discussed was the dying art of the family photo album and if you don’t have tangible copies, what will be left when all your digital files no longer work or like a vhs / dvd, the technology barely exists to access them. I think my brain nearly short circuited after listening to this. We got into the habit of making photo books of our daily life and travels, but have not been keeping up the last few years. Even so, these photo books are only 10% of those events or photos during that time. I have always kept this in the back of my mind, but with everything being on a screen these days, kept pushing this concern to the back closet.

https://www.iainfarrell.com/prime-lenses-podcast. – have a listen here

The pictures of beautiful places and things that I found interesting are one thing, but the memories of our kids and family are the ones that really are the priceless items. It’s like a time capsule of our years, freezing that moment of existence. We have been documenting our lives and us as a family with hundreds and thousands of photos each year. It would be a shame for these to just disappear from a server or hard drive as time and accessibility move on.

Solution B= the film negative. I cannot think of a better, modern day, version of a family photo album. Over the years, I have a good number of film that has accompanied us along on our travels. These are cut and sleeved neatly in binders. While they are not as easy to view or browse as a photo book or print on your wall, they are still tangible and will not loose accessibility if they are taken care of.

After Iain kicked me out of my denial of digital longevity, I want to make a more conscience effort to have something that will last the test of time and not lose the ability to be plugged in or have an obsolete chord that doesn’t have a port that works anymore. Just look at the iPhone or your iMac, the normal USB is now accessed through an adapter, but how long will that last? I won’t be removing digital from my work flow, but I definitely will be shooting film a lot more in addition to the digital work. It may be books, prints, enlargements, Polaroids, zines, or negative sleeves, but whatever it is you choose, make sure it’s able to stand the test of time.