What plans do you have for your negs when you die?

Graham.b · Mar 31, 2008

I have all ready put i a post on this, but would like to add. My wife's mother had her 90th a little while back, and Anne my wife had some old negs of family back other 50 years, a bit scratched and faded. So i set to work on them. They came out very well on the print board, and the ones that were a bit past it, i scanned and bit of help with the
computer put the rest in a montage, any way on the day the happy folk to see photo's of the long forgotten parents and family brought a few tears of joy.
So there should be some where these negs to go, for old time sake if anything.
Some one some where will want to see their family past.
Regards Graham

osprey48 · Mar 31, 2008

To Markbb: The neg sleeves are labelled, but they're all a bit of a mixed bag.
To Tim Rudman: No, I don't know anything you don't, so don't worry! At least not about photography anyway.Ha ha!

keithwms · Mar 31, 2008

Steve, do you have opportunities to do some photography now, in your current circumstances?

sdivot · Mar 31, 2008

Keith,
Not really, but I was thinking of using my holga with a flash attached to document the whole process. Sort of a low tech way to record a high tech process. This will be in part a distraction to take my mind off of the gravity of the situation, but you never know it may yield a neat series of photos.
My family will think I've gone off my rocker of course!

While I'm waiting for the "call" I may be able to do a lot of neg scanning for future digital negatives. If you look at my website, you can see I mostly shoot medium format and make digital negs for alt processes.

Thanks for the well wishes Jim.

Steve
scdowellphoto.com

pesphoto · Mar 31, 2008

Good luck to you Steve. Your work is excellent and it is appreciated!

JBrunner · Mar 31, 2008

My negatives will be held in trust by my family. My son has indicated that he wants to be a photographer like his dad, and that he would like to print my negs after I am gone, so that's the plan for now. I suppose his mind could change, as he's only five at the moment. He seems pretty serious though, he shoots about two rolls of 35mm a week.

zenrhino · Mar 31, 2008

First they're going to an arts admin PhD friend of mine who will curate my death show. Then they go to my wife, who can do with them as she pleases. I'll be dead so it won't matter much to me at that point.

jordanstarr · Mar 31, 2008

Why not pass the negatives down to someone who is considerably younger and intends to do film until the day they die?

Right now I'm 24 and expect to do photography for as long as the supplies exist. If I had a friend who unexpectedly passed away and had tons of undeveloped negatives, I'd make it my duty to honour them and develop some of the negatives. With the best of my judgement of character of the person (and viewing previous work would also help), I would attempt to replicate them how they would want the prints to look as well as distributing them as the artist would wish.

It's just a thought, but if you pass your negatives off to a stranger or institution who do not know you personally, just expect that they'll end up in a box until someone simply tosses it out in the trash. We all know how hard photography is to do in this day-in-age with dwindling supplies, darkrooms shutting down and a general lack of interest. Imagine 40 years from now when there's only a select few still doing film photography. No one is going to want to put all that effort and use the last of what supplies are left to develop someone elses' negatives if they're a complete stranger unless there is some huge monetary gain. However, if you know the individual personally, you'd be more inclined to develop the prints yourself for genuine purposes (the interpreted wishes of the deceased) than some unknown person.

JBrunner · Mar 31, 2008

jordanstarr said:
Imagine 40 years from now when there's only a select few still doing film photography.

Na, I won't imagine it. Digital is just a fad, like pet rocks. We're on the way back up.

gandolfi · Mar 31, 2008

first of all, when I die, my girlfriend will go through the negatives and keep the ones not suitable for the public eye.(lots of those, you know)

then I'll proberly donate the rest to the Royal Danish Libary for safe keeping (the libary have the second largest collection on "grafics" in Europe, and they have to keep the items (I don't think they can refuse the donation))

OR, I'll donate them to APUG!

arigram · Mar 31, 2008

- If I become rich, I will send them up in space along with the rest of my remains. No vultures are gonna live off my work.
- If I have children that don't turn complete bastards I might give them the opportunity to be at least vultures.
- If I die young in a violent accident, I wouldn't have made any arrangements, would I?
- If I die a lone old geezer, I will probably too hateful of life to give any crap where my carcass is tossed along with the rest.
Now, that's all assuming that my negatives have any value at all.

André E.C. · Mar 31, 2008

They will stay with my family, if they can do something with them, cool, go ahead, I'm dead anyways!

Cheers

André

Bobby Ironsights · Apr 2, 2008

Well, in opposition to a comment a couple of pages back, I'd first like to point out that I'm not a communist. I beleive in a persons right to their own body, and their time, unless abrogated through say...criminal acts. Flowing out of that I beleive personal property rights, and copyrights..

However, I also beleive in the commons, and that my negatives hold significant value IF PROPERLY DATED AND LABELED, and will keep the best records I can so that these photographs will be of the greatest possible value to the historical records, historians and the body public.

What will I do when I die? Well, I hope to, when I see my remaining years approaching, spend more time in the darkroom and make a large number of art prints, 40 or so, of each of my favorite negatives and pass those along to my loved ones directly as an asset, to gift away, sell or stick up their bums in some sort of strange sex act that defies the laws of man and God.

My negatives, properly catalogued and databased, both on paper and in e-format will go to the local gov't for the historical record.

JBrunner · Apr 3, 2008

Bobby Ironsights said:
Well, in opposition to a comment a couple of pages back, I'd first like to point out that I'm not a communist. I beleive in a persons right to their own body, and their time, unless abrogated through say...criminal acts. Flowing out of that I beleive personal property rights, and copyrights..

However, I also beleive in the commons, and that my negatives hold significant value IF PROPERLY DATED AND LABELED, and will keep the best records I can so that these photographs will be of the greatest possible value to the historical records, historians and the body public.

What will I do when I die? Well, I hope to, when I see my remaining years approaching, spend more time in the darkroom and make a large number of art prints, 40 or so, of each of my favorite negatives and pass those along to my loved ones directly as an asset, to gift away, sell or stick up their bums in some sort of strange sex act that defies the laws of man and God.

My negatives, properly catalogued and databased, both on paper and in e-format will go to the local gov't for the historical record.

Just to be on the safe side, I'd take them some now, and see how well they manage it.....pop back up in say two years time and see if they can lay hands on them, or even know what you are talking about.

Tom Duffy · Apr 7, 2008

I'm going to leave my negatives to my three kids. The only reason I had these kids was so that my negatives would have a home after I die.

Pavel+ · Apr 8, 2008

They say ... like they know! Hah! They are all wrong. I'm going to take them with me! All of em.

Dave Wooten · Apr 8, 2008

I think Gandolfi might be on to something here with the girl friend and the Royal Danish Library...if they have to take them, I assume they would be cataloged and archived etc....and in the distant future, could be referenced by the academics, I'm certain in years to come there will be dissertations on the 'puggers.

Jim Noel · Apr 8, 2008

At almost 80 years of age, I have a lot more to worry about than the eventual destination of my negatives. I am trying to make as many good negatives and good prints as I can while able to see them.

Curt · Apr 8, 2008

I'm having major surgery in two days, lately I've given a lot of thought to my documents and belongings. I have a book of poetry on my computer in Adobe InDesign, I'll leave a note in my notebook so it can be saved for anyone interested. I didn't have time to complete the overall design and polish it up.

My negatives are all stored correctly and my son knows how to photograph and print, I would hope he would at least scan and print in the future, that sounds a little like AA doesn't it. I print my way, but if he wants to interpret them his way then it's his choice.

Les McLean · Apr 8, 2008

Curt said:
I'm having major surgery in two days, lately I've given a lot of thought to my documents and belongings. I have a book of poetry on my computer in Adobe InDesign, I'll leave a note in my notebook so it can be saved for anyone interested. I didn't have time to complete the overall design and polish it up.

My negatives are all stored correctly and my son knows how to photograph and print, I would hope he would at least scan and print in the future, that sounds a little like AA doesn't it. I print my way, but if he wants to interpret them his way then it's his choice.

Curt, may I wish you the best for the forthcoming surgery and I'll look forward to your APUG contributions in the near future.

panastasia · Apr 8, 2008

Jim Noel said:
At almost 80 years of age, I have a lot more to worry about than the eventual destination of my negatives. I am trying to make as many good negatives and good prints as I can while able to see them.

My thoughts exactely, only 20 years sooner.

I concentrate on printing everything worth printing and suspect that my negatives will not be printed by others after me. There isn't anyone close to me interested in negatives, only prints.

Curt · Apr 8, 2008

Thank you Les, I appreciate the thought, I'm having my Sinuses, Nasal passages, Septum, and the entire region reconstructed. It's going to be stints and splints for a few weeks. At 56 all of the infections and previous surgeries finally caught up with me. I hope to breath better, it's going to be an extensive procedure and I have a very good surgeon so I'm looking forward to getting it over. The chance of blindness and nerve loss is a risk that I have to take. I feel so luck to have a group of specialists, my background in Radiology, Radiation Therapy and a Registered Nurse for a wife. Having a wife who is a nurse with over thirty years of medical / surgical nursing is a huge comfort.

I was thinking of Sean this morning and the bad season he had with allergies, it's not fun.

Thanks,
Curt

What plans do you have for your negs when you die?

Graham.b

osprey48

keithwms

sdivot

pesphoto

JBrunner

Moderator

zenrhino

jordanstarr

JBrunner

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gandolfi

arigram

André E.C.

Bobby Ironsights

JBrunner

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Tom Duffy

Pavel+

Dave Wooten

Jim Noel

Curt

Les McLean

panastasia

Curt

What plans do you have for your negs when you die?

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