The Fate Of Our Photos.

[Bluechapel]

I agree with everyone here: I don't really care what happens to prints, the family stuff has been digitized and spread around (after we almost lost the house to wildfire twice in three years!), and I hope my daughter (3: is it too early to hope?) want the negs and gear.

 

[kevs]

Mine will probably end up at the local landfill, negs, slides and all. And I really, really don't care.

 

[Besk]

That's been my experience, too. I inherited the family "photo archives" and I'm printing some of the many negatives my grandmother took as a young girl in the '20s.

So I think I'll pack my negs and will them to my first grandchild (or, if I live long enough, to the grandchild who shows the most interest!).

I am in the same situation. My current project is to put titles and information on my mothers photos from the 1920's and 1930's and my photos to date of family. I am skipping my daughter and will try to get my granddaughters interested.

 

[jgcull]

My family will probably cremate.

 

[dougjgreen]

I'm going to bequeath them to the Smithsonian, so that they can throw them out.

 

[PeteZ8]

I'm having a special chamber included in my pyramid.

Humph, mine will be in their own pyramid!

This is an interesting thread. At 31 I'm not really at an age where I often consider such things; I suppose at this point in time my mother would be very interested in them, perhaps an uncle also who is into photography.

Ask me again in 40 years and perhaps I will have a better plan!

Honestly I really don't care what happens to them. I do this for my own enjoyment and noone elses. If someone I know appreciates my images enough to want them, great. If not, it won't matter to me anyway I'll be dead.

I'm not worried about leaving them as my legacy. I would hope my legacy would be in the way I lived my life and treated the people around me, not the imagery I made. I'd rather be remembered as a "good man", not a "good photographer".

 

[removed account4]

a bunch of my work is already in a handful of archives, and libraries.
unless i use up all my film and paper, and give away all my prints.
i don't expect will make it past the dumpster.
it was fun to make though ( and show, and sell ) ...

 

[WolfTales]

I'm hoping if it's any good, it'll stick around by itself.

It'll cook and feed itself. It'll go to school and learn a trade. It will learn economics and how to provide for itself and how to invest in it's own 401k and retirement plan. And hopefully in the process it'll learn how to find it's own shelter and stay kinda stable so that others can enjoy it.

sigh capitalism....

 

[VaryaV]

In the trash or cremated with my carcass, art is my great love so I would probably rather burn with my passion. I don't have kids to pass them on to.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I have no kids and, apart from a few shots that might have some sociological and/or geographical and/or artistic interest or significance, the world won't give a stuff whether they continue to exist or not. The negs can be shredded or burned and it will take but a few clicks of the mouse to dispose of my digital and digitised images.

My wife has explicit instructions in my will, however, to use or dispose of my camera gear as she sees fit.

 

[amuderick]

Stick it all in large ammo box, label it, wrap it in 8 mils of plastic and bury it in the ground. Someone, someday will find them. By that point, even mediocre work gets interesting.

 

[hugopoon]

I think I will do what my grandpa's doing right now - distribute my gear to everyone (for example, I'm the one who's obsessed with photography in this generation, so he's giving me more expensive stuff. My cousins are getting his digital P&S cameras, I'm getting some very good film gear. My uncles are getting his Leica RFs, Mamiya & Hasselblad systems). I will also do what he's done with his negatives - give them to someone trusted in the family to have them scanned to the best quality and preserve those photos forever.