After death: What shall happen to our photos?

Businessfotos

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Very few of us are well-known artists whose photographic work will live on in books, exhibitions and foundations. So what will happen to our photos (and negatives) after we die? I am interested in what you think about this topic, what your requirements are and what precautions you are taking.

To put my morbid thoughts into context: My father was an unknown artist who worked as a teacher and never went public. After his death, the still-unresolved situation arose as to what we, the heirs, should do with his paintings and drawings. We hung some of them ourselves, gave others away, and many are simply stored. I had approached various galleries posthumously, but that was unsuccessful. My father was satisfied with working for himself and for art. I find that admirable, but I'm not sure I see it the same way. I would love it if my photos continued to bring joy, meaning or memories after my death. At the same time, I want to avoid placing a real or moral burden on my children and forcing them to do anything. I actually couldn't care less what happens to my photos after I die. But I still want to stay a little.

How do you feel about that? Do you plan to leave your archive to an heir or a museum? Do you produce photo books as keepsakes? Does it matter to you at all? I'm curious...

Thank you for your answers & best wishes, Till
 

koraks

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I hope whomever comes next (no kids here, not planning on any either) decides for themselves how they like to handle the legacy of stacks of plastic and paper and disposes of it as they see fit. I mostly hope that they don't feel somehow compelled to carry the burden of having to be a steward over a pile of gelatin because they think I had some kind of lofty idea of leaving a meaningful legacy.

There's about 8 billion of us presently alive. We're not even fleeting blips of noise on the cosmic radar. Let's maybe act the part, too. You live for a brief moment, then you're gone. 200 years from now nobody will even remember your existence, let alone the gritty details of it.
 

Rikard_L

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I make photo books and zines from family related photography as well as more artsy projects. Maybe someone will enjoy them when I'm gone. I do think that fear of death and the thought of not having left any sort of mark on the world is a contributing factor to our drive to create. At least on a subconscious level.
 

rduraoc

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I've just bought a stack of circa 500 negatives and slides from a french seller. Unknown author, description only mentions that they're mostly from boats and seascapes. Some of them appear to be 6x9 negatives. Looking forward to have a closer look at them once they arrive.

I guess I'd like my negatives to go somewhere in the world after I'm gone, to someone that is also curious to see how I, an anonymous, registered what was around me.
 

Don_ih

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I'm not worrying about it. It could all be burned in a barrel in a few hours.
 

Agulliver

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I do not have any children, nor do I plan on having any. Having reached the age of 51 and 26 years of marriage with no offspring, I view that as several positive achievements

I have a few cousins, some of whom have kids and even grandkids. But none of them is interested. Some of my work will live on via the interwebs and a couple of books. But most will simply live on via my social media accounts.

What bothers me more is that I am custodian of a bit of a family archive. I have my late maternal grandfather's entire output of 8mm cine film which features the cousins on that side of the family when they were young children and babies, and our parents when they were young along with scenes of times gone by including Yorkshire industry and Ireland in the 1960s. I also have the archive of prints, negatives and slides of a great aunt who died about twenty years ago....this is a couple of thousand images shot from the 1940s to 1990s.

Part of the problem is that I am not close to my blood family. Frankly they probably think I am the "black sheep" of the family. But as we all age (two of my cousins may well be terminally ill as I type) it's going to become important that people know I have this family archive plus my own negatives, slides and cine films....in case anyone is interested.

I've always thought long term (there's no way I am neuro-typical). Even as a young child taking photos I was thinking "these will be *interesting* many years from now. I was the five year old taking a vintage Zeiss-Ikon to school, which was seen as very odd and perhaps even annoying at the time.....of course the photos I took of my school teachers and friends are now needed by the school itself for their archive. I can see a time when film photos of current times will be important because digital images are prone to being lost. From a historical perspective, they might be valuable not just to family but to those who study recent history. Maybe I am just being big headed, but I think things like documenting the pandemic on film - everyday life - might turn out to be important in another 30 years. Or perhaps 50 years, which will surely be after I am gone.
 

guangong

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I leave all of my photographic equipment and photos to my daughter and her family. I do have a picture of my great-great grandmother (born 1825), surrounded by her daughters (a great aunt was a big star preWWI). The only picture (a tintype) of my grandmother who died in childbirth. Also a lot of pictures of the world about me. Even pictures taken in the city I live in during the 1970s are pictures of a different world…butchers, fish mongers, bread bakeries…all gone. Replaced by fast food takeouts. I’ll let my descendants work it out.
Stealing a line from “St. James Infirmary” maybe “Put a Leica on my chest, just to let the boys know I died standing pat.”
 

Alan Edward Klein

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Make prints of your favorites and family shots and give them framed to family and friends now so you can enjoy them enjoying them while you;re alive. I made a couple of photo books of my grandson and gave to his parents. I also gave my daughter slide shows on video files stored on memory cards to be played on smart TV,s monitors or cell phones. Ignore the rest of the photos. No one cares. They have their own junk.
 

Carnie Bob

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I am setting up to have a young woman , take over the business with me somewhat involved as long as I am credible to the venture. My prints are sold privately
and will continue after my passing, I hope all my prints are passed down to future generations as well resold to buyers interested in my work.
This question by the OP is significant in my sphere of photography.
 

Nicholas Lindan

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Mine will end up in a landfill if my sisters have anything to do with it. They will end up in a landfill even if my sisters don't have anything to do with it.

We, and all are works, are just grist for the global composter. Dirt to dirt, ashes to ashes and all that rot.
 

Alan Edward Klein

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Your widow's next husband will throw them all in the garbage.
 

loccdor

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I upload what I consider to be my best photos in full resolution with no watermark. When I reach my senior years, I will release the copyright and hope that other people will enjoy them. I tag and date and geolocate them as accurately as possible so they can be searched later by people who may be interested in a particular place, time, subject, or photographic equipment. When I got too old to do much with them anymore, I could imagine auctioning off the prints, slides, and negatives, unless a friend or family member wanted them.

Being very interested myself in images made in times long past, I'd like that tradition to continue into the future.

I've known a few photographers who have died and I appreciate that I can still view their images online.
 
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Alan Edward Klein

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I still have 43 reels of 50-foot 8mm movies my father-in-law took. My projector broke and I had scanned one reel to digital card of my wife when she was swimming as a toddler. The scan came out nice considering it was over 60 years old. Most of the other reels were when her parents traveled on vacation. But we need to go through them all to see. I;ve asked my wife and she says "someday". I don't have that much time left, I don't think.
 

Alan Edward Klein

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Nicholas Lindan said:
Oh, no, he won't. The widow will have taken care of that long since.
Click to expand...

When my father died, his second wife sent me his pool stick. Don't know what happened to the money??
 

Sirius Glass

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I have children who will have to figure out what to with the photographs, cameras, lenses, darkroom, film, paper and chemicals as well as the choice of which rest home I get stuck in. So while all that will be their problem, I have to be nice to them because of the last item on that list.
 

perkeleellinen

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When relatives have died I've always tried to get hold of the photos before they're dumped. I really like looking through them, deciding what to keep (often not much), making prints if there's a negative (rare) and projecting the 8mm movies. It gives me a sort of visual history of their life and because it's condensed it's quite powerful. No one else in my family is remotely interested. I wonder if my boy would do the same with my stuff...
 

MurrayMinchin

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Canada extends copyright protection for estates › CARFAC

The national voice of Canada’s professional visual artists
www.carfac.ca

We have one daughter, so that simplifies things. I hope to have a body of limited edition works finished by the time I pop off.

Beyond that, I'll try to find a university or research foundation with an interest in the fully mature temperate rainforest environment I love so much here on the north coast of British Columbia. During the last Ice Age, the ice got to 5,500 feet deep where I live and palm tree pollen has been found on the floor of the Arctic Ocean, so my point in geologic time local forest snapshots should gain in research value as new species ebb & flow through these valleys into the future.
 
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Alan Edward Klein

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You're going to spend their inheritance money in a nursing home for you? They're not going to like that.
 

rcphoto

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I have several hobbies that result in me having more stuff than I probably should. My wife has been instructed to just take whatever she can for the items and don't worry about what they might be "worth". I've assured her none of my stuff is worth worrying about.

As for my photos and negatives, anything meaningfull is sorted and labeled so someone (my wife and daughter) could pick it up and understand what it is and where it came from. Everything else is indicated as not important (to anyone but me) and is destined for the bin should I die before I can deal with it.
 

Paul Howell

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Some of the photos I took while in the Air Force may have achieved, UPI sold it photo library to Getty, I freelanced for the Sacramento Union, when it stopped publication its microfilm library was donated to the University of California at Davis, Reuters has an extensive library, some of my work may be in the achieves as well. I did did some for few publishers, author photos and covers, they will be around as long as the covers last. My personal collection of prints and negatives. it will be up to my son to decide if he wants to keep any of it.
 
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