What to do with a photographer's life work...

[Froeschli]

I'm honestly stumped. My latr husband was a photographer. He started out documenting high voltage experiments for pioneer electric in the early 70ies and went on to shoot the royal Winnipeg ballet etc before entering photo journalism and doing all sorts of other things.
Now i am left with a collection of negatives and apparently noone interested in them.
I've contacted the canadian dance archive, but, meh, no reply.
Is it just all done and to be forgotten?
Anywhere that does collect old negatives like that?
Do i just toss them? I can't keep everything, but it seems such a waste...

 

[mark]

Approach a library and ask to donate.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I agree that it would be sad if all was lost. There are probably some unknown historical documents in there, but it's tough to say without seeing.

My advice, if you have the money for it, would be to digitize everything - or, at least, everything that you think may be of interest. It might be easier after to pinpoint organisations that may be interested in some of the documents.

I wouldn't count too much on arts organisations right now. They are reeling from the pandemic and following up on this will not be a priority for them.

What did he do in terms of photojournalism? Specific assignments or personal projects?

 

[Deleted member 88956]

Would you mind sharing a few scans on here?

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

This is something that we all think of from time to time. What to do with all those negatives. I've already told my wife to bin everything and maybe keep a few prints for herself, as I wouldn't want to burden her or my kids with thousands and thousands of negatives... I'm reminded of a railroad photographer friend of mine who passed away suddenly several years ago. He lived alone. He did amazing work photography steam engines here and around the world. He chased steam in China just before they converted over to diesel. I printed many of his work for him. His work was amazing. His step-brother dumped all his negatives in a bin before I had a chance to rescue them. I have no idea what happened to his gear... heart breaking.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Have you contacted the Royal Winnipeg Ballet? Maybe you could donate those negatives to them? You would think they would be of value to them. Maybe prints would be better...

 

[Froeschli]

Would you mind sharing a few scans on here?

I can scan a few. Have to get them fro s torage first though...
I don't think any of his journalism is here. His ex must have (tossed) them. I wasn't around then, but he did a lot of work with the steelworker's union, parliament hill, politicians sleeping on park benches...
All I have are ballet and theatre shots, likely mid 70ies. And a bunch of portraits, which, unless someone became famous, are probably useless... he did school photos and the like for a long time. Pet portraits - the usual for a photographer earning a living.
I know he did way more than what i have here, but that's what is left. I have the last 15 years of his work in digital files here. Those i will hang on to. But that's more artistic work, things he shot for himself. His vision of Canada. And Berlin when we first met. Heck, i just found some rolls of film from back then that we never developed....
Maybe scanning everything and keeping it as a digital archive will be a decent compromise...

Yeah, there is a camera collection i have to decide what to do with as well. I can claim 1/3 as mine. The rest were his. Noone wanted to buy his 4x5 camera, so i am learning how to use it. It's fascinating, but not sure it is my "thing" - i mostly edit, i don't create...

 

[Froeschli]

Have you contacted the Royal Winnipeg Ballet? Maybe you could donate those negatives to them? You would think they would be of value to them. Maybe prints would be better...

Not yet. There doesn't seem a direct way to contact them. There is an alumni association i was going to try but they linked to the dance archive, so that is where i started... it's not high priority. I still have to do his back taxes and sort out a heck of a lot of other things, but honestly, i care more about preserving his work than chasing paperwork...

 

[Deleted member 88956]

I can scan a few. Have to get them fro s torage first though...
I don't think any of his journalism is here. His ex must have (tossed) them. I wasn't around then, but he did a lot of work with the steelworker's union, parliament hill, politicians sleeping on park benches...
All I have are ballet and theatre shots, likely mid 70ies. And a bunch of portraits, which, unless someone became famous, are probably useless... he did school photos and the like for a long time. Pet portraits - the usual for a photographer earning a living.
I know he did way more than what i have here, but that's what is left. I have the last 15 years of his work in digital files here. Those i will hang on to. But that's more artistic work, things he shot for himself. His vision of Canada. And Berlin when we first met. Heck, i just found some rolls of film from back then that we never developed....
Maybe scanning everything and keeping it as a digital archive will be a decent compromise...

Yeah, there is a camera collection i have to decide what to do with as well. I can claim 1/3 as mine. The rest were his. Noone wanted to buy his 4x5 camera, so i am learning how to use it. It's fascinating, but not sure it is my "thing" - i mostly edit, i don't create...

All I would say is keep the negatives, have them archived well, scanned if possible, develop the undeveloped (carefully) and only then seek a right place for them. There may be some value in them that is hard to realize now, including decision not to let them go at all or only selectively.

Still, when you get a chance I'm sure we would appreciate seeing a few here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

How insensitive I am...I guess I was too focussed on your dilemma. Sorry to hear that you lost husband has passed away. Did he have any of his work online somewhere?

 

[markjwyatt]

I would scan them, then set-up an account for him on Flickr.com. Create Albums based on the nature of the work. Maintain the copyright in your name if that is possible. State in the introduction the situation, then invite people to request usage of the photographs by contacting you. Anyway, sorry to heart of his loss, but that is what I would do. I may do that form my dad's photos one of these days.

 

[Kino]

My condolences for your loss.

This is a real problem. You could contact your National Archives administration to see if there is any interest at that level. Unfortunately, most State sponsored archives are overwhelmed with their existing collections and are very selective about what they can accept. Don't be insulted if they don't appear interested; it all comes down to resources. ( However, I do think the curators of most of these places need to take a few courses on how to decline donations in a more sympathetic manner! They are probably overwhelmed, but that's no excuse...) .

If I could only win the lotto, I'd love to set up an Institute for Photographic Images that would be small and self sustaining on the proceeds of licensing royalties of image collections. Maybe, just maybe, it could generate enough money to preserve the negatives and a couple of salaries. It would be a very challenging endeavor...

 

[Dan Fromm]

A museum accepted my father's home movie of a three month stay in Japan in the early '50s, b/w negatives and color slides.

 

[ic-racer]

My plan is to link my prints to the negatives through my darkroom notebook to avoid confusion*. So, in a lifetime say I'm able to produce 100 museum quality prints, that would be only 100 negatives to manage. Don't think I'll even get that many, though.

*There was no clue as to the location of the negative for any given photograph....The process of locating the negatives for the images we wanted to print thus consisted of my memorizing all of he rphotographs on the new copy profs, and then searching for each image from amongst the more than seven thousand filed contacts sheets in Diane's darkroom. -- In The Darkroom by Neil Selkirk"

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Regarding the personal and more artistic material, there are may services online today that do pretty decent photo books, at very affordable prices. It would give you a physical memento to remember him by, while paying tribute to his work and artistry.

 

[MattKing]

My condolences for your loss.
My sense is that the dance world is suffering greatly from the effects of Covid 19 and the associated lockdown, so if you can afford to be patient, there is a much greater chance that you will receive responses to enquiries a few months from now.
You probably need to locate just one person who would be interested.

 

[AgX]

I would call these people:
https://theatremuseum.ca

And likely those people also can advise what to do with ballett photos too.

 

[ced]

Condolences! Try contacting any museums in your area also photographic clubs could help you find a home, also local publishers, newspapers etc. may know who is interested.
Don't bother scanning them it is just another expense you don't need. Keep them in good conditions till something pops up.

 

[AgX]

Approach a library and ask to donate.

Try contacting any museums in your area...

Maybe over at your locations the situation is very different, what for Belgium would really surprise me, but here libraries do not bother at all with such matter, and musea are only interested in stuff they actually collect.
What a museum expert well could do is giving advice on which museum/institution could be interested, but I assume not many would spend time on such consultation off their own field.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Have you tried with Canadian Archive?

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/about-us/about-collection/make_a_donation/Pages/default.aspx

 

[Bill Burk]

You may be able to create a book.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

You may be able to create a book.

Great idea!

 

[Bill Burk]

I can imagine there are enough amazing images of dancers. I took maybe three photographs of a dancer in my life and find them amazing when I come across the negatives. It boggles my mind to think there could be hundreds or thousands in this collection.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The dancers or their families might be interested.

 

[eli griggs]

If you can get his work into digital format, I suggest you try to get an archive at the internet archive, but copy right his work first. Also other online free digital libraries, but you'll need captions, facts to go with as many images as possible.

Even if it's only given a date, location, equipment type, etc, it's better to have some indication of what is the image.

Good luck.