After death: What shall happen to our photos?

awty · Sep 28, 2024

I throw as I go, my physical media would all fit in a normal sized suitcase, with space to spare.
I'm much more interested in future exploits than work on past pictures.
My mother inlaw, who recently past away, on the other hand was a prolific photographer kept every photo she took, hundreds of photo albums, boxes and boxes of negatives and slides.......she also left us a half share in her house, so I can forgive her.

Pieter12 · Sep 28, 2024

Vivian Maier

awty · Sep 28, 2024

Pieter12 said:
Vivian Maier

A very few people are good with a camera and have pictures worth preserving, most aren't. Mother-in-law had 10 volumes just on pet cats

Pieter12 · Sep 28, 2024

awty said:
A very few people are good with a camera and have pictures worth preserving, most aren't. Mother-in-law had 10 volumes just on pet cats

I totally agree. But maybe one out of a few hundred thousand is gifted like Ms. Maier. And she had no plans for her work although it was important enough for her to hold on to and put in storage. Later it seems she sort of drifted off into possible dementia. She was a hoarder and possibly did not recognize the value of her photos to others, and it was sheer luck that they were acquired blindly by someone who thought, when he saw them, they might be something of significance.

The other side of the coin is where a hobbyist photographer thinks their work deserves preserving and passing on while all it merits is a trip to the dumpster.

RalphLambrecht · Sep 29, 2024

Businessfotos said:
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

mine will most likely end up in the dumpster, too and I'm forcing myself not to care

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 29, 2024

Circulate family shots around your family. That's where it really counts and where people might care. If you want to be remembered, that's where it will happen.

Sirius Glass · Sep 29, 2024

mshchem said:
What if heaven has 220 and all you have are 120 backs

Then I will have to make the 120 emulsions I use because Kodak and others never produced enough 120 emulsions for me ever.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Sep 29, 2024

Don_ih said:
Actually, they do. They work full-time hours to do exactly that sort of thing. And an archivist may see something significant in what you'd prune away.

But it hardly matters. If you're not culturally significant when you're alive, your work will probably not be seen as culturally significant when you're dead.

They work to ensure that what has been deemed significant is properly preserved, but they don't have the time to go hunting for the stuff, or to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Don_ih · Sep 29, 2024

Michel Hardy-Vallée said:
They work to ensure that what has been deemed significant is properly preserved, but they don't have the time to go hunting for the stuff, or to separate the wheat from the chaff.

It doesn't take much effort to sit and look at a bunch of boxes on shelves.

Sirius Glass · Sep 29, 2024

Don_ih said:
It doesn't take much effort to sit and look at a bunch of boxes on shelves.

But it takes time, concentration, and careful thought. Some may be short of those in time of stress and pain.

eli griggs · Sep 29, 2024

Don_ih said:
It doesn't take much effort to sit and look at a bunch of boxes on shelves.

Try looking critically with an educated skill-set, at the thousands of small and medium format negatives and positives, as well as other formats and contact sheets, plus those finished or artist interpretations of prints, cropped, dodged, burned, or otherwise hand coloured, by an unknown photographer like Maier, and actually take a paycheck for your labors, so results are not only critical, but will be immediate subjected to criticism, by others seeing the same pool of works you have.

A guy that you pay to clean out your attic, MIGHT look at a shoe box of photographs before tossing them into the trash or silver reclamation bin, but weeding out the competent archive from outright junk will not be his/her priority or even within their portfolio.

There's nothing simple or easy about such work,

Pieter12 · Sep 29, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
Circulate family shots around your family. That's where it really counts and where people might care. If you want to be remembered, that's where it will happen.

That is what people do today with texting and social media. You will be remembered as the kooky uncle with a camera.

koraks · Sep 29, 2024

Pieter12 said:
You will be remembered as the kooky uncle with a camera.

I think for quite a few people, the first four words are enough for them and they don't particularly mind what follows.
As for myself, being remembered in the way you describe would be A-OK for me, really. Heck, I think that's water under the bridge already for the most part!

VinceInMT · Sep 29, 2024

Not just my photos but everything else....drawings, painting, sculptures....vintage cars, motorcycles, musical instruments and on and on. I'm in the process of finishing up a big digitizing project of all my photos that the kids will get. The physical versions, who cares. They have spoken up for a few items they have their eyes on and I plan to gift them before I'm gone. One kid is a car and motorcycle enthusiast so he gets all those with all the tools. The other is a software engineer and he gets that stuff which includes an Apple ][ I bought in '78 with the original box, paperwork, books, software, and all that. He works for that company now. The darkroom I hope to hand off to someone, maybe a school.

MurrayMinchin · Sep 29, 2024

'Artwork Archive' may be of interest...I haven't used it, just flagged it whilst looking for artist website platforms. There are probably many others.

It got started for estates and corporations to organize their collections, then branched out for artists to organize and sell artwork themselves:

https://www.artworkarchive.com/

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Sep 29, 2024

Pieter12 said:
Vivian Maier

Overblown. Overhyped.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Sep 29, 2024

Don_ih said:
It doesn't take much effort to sit and look at a bunch of boxes on shelves.

Say that to the archivists.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Sep 29, 2024

RalphLambrecht said:
mine will most likely end up in the dumpster, too and I'm forcing myself not to care

As Metallica once said, "Sad but True."

Don_ih · Sep 29, 2024

Michel Hardy-Vallée said:
Say that to the archivists.

Do you think I wouldn't? There is real work to be done by an archivist - it's not simply shoving stuff already identified as important into a box and lining shelves. It's going through piles of material and trying to save what's important. If an archivist didn't do that, they'd be totally useless. They'd be a security guard for things no one really wants.

Pieter12 · Sep 29, 2024

Michel Hardy-Vallée said:
Overblown. Overhyped.

But of more significance than anyone on this list--the ones discussing how to best deal with their images after they have passed on.

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 30, 2024

Pieter12 said:
That is what people do today with texting and social media. You will be remembered as the kooky uncle with a camera.

Texting and social media are in the vapor and get lost. I'm referring to hard copies like framed photo prints, photo books, memory cards for playback, etc.

Pieter12 · Sep 30, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
Texting and social media are in the vapor and get lost. I'm referring to hard copies like framed photo prints, photo books, memory cards for playback, etc.

Like it or not, that is how families document their lives now. Folks have thousands of photos on their phones that they can show and share at any time. Backed up on the cloud, everyone has the equivalent of more than a hundred photo albums in their pocket all the time, anywhere.

koraks · Sep 30, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
Texting and social media are in the vapor and get lost.

Overall, I agree - although the jury is out on this one, of course. So far, the memory of "the internet" has proven to be pretty ruthless much of the time.
An anecdote comes to mind - my wife is young enough to have grown up with mobile phones (well, so am I, at least to an extent...and insofar as I ever grew up of course), so she was texting her friends as a teenager. Fearing that she might at some point lose those glorious conversations, she has (I kid you not) transcribed those conversations in a diary on several occasions (again, I'm not making this up).

Maybe we could propose that people would draw a facsimile of the photos sent to them through WhatsApp etc.

Pieter12 said:
Backed up on the cloud

Exactly. People often point out the fleeting nature of digital media, whilst ignoring or forgetting the fact that can be (and often are) also readily duplicated at effectively zero marginal cost.

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 30, 2024

Pieter12 said:
Like it or not, that is how families document their lives now. Folks have thousands of photos on their phones that they can show and share at any time. Backed up on the cloud, everyone has the equivalent of more than a hundred photo albums in their pocket all the time, anywhere.

People still appreciate photos in frames, especially of family.

Pieter12 · Sep 30, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
People still appreciate photos in frames, especially of family.

And one can easily print photos taken with a smartphone.

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