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What's your place in history?

If I am "lucky", I will be a boring little footnote in a brief, but equally boring history of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center in Dayton, Ohio. Any legacy I might have had with that institution, died when they relocated to Culpeper, Virginia and totally retooled the work flows, heavily biasing it toward d*****l.

As for my personal photographic work, I highly doubt it will survive my passing...
 
Who here really thinks of themselves as doing this for posterity or history? I do this because I like creating things, but I can't say I've ever been motivated by posterity -- other than capturing shots of my family.
 
As a photographer, I have done a fair amount of wedding work. As a lawyer, I've done some divorce work. In B.C., when you start a divorce proceeding, you need to formally serve documents on the spouse, and then provide proof of service. Usually, you use a photograph of the spouse as an exhibit to an affidavit of service.

There is nothing so sad as when your client brings one of his or her wedding photos to use for this purpose.

Hmmm - place in history?:confused:

Matt
 
perhaps few people appreciate my work and majority think I was a mad one because I waste my time with photography.
So be it !
 
My pics go in the attic in the hope that no-one will notice they're there for at least 100 years.

Then in 2150 (my 200th birthday) I'm rediscovered as a genius...

But:

(A) Who gives a damn about posterity? What has posterity ever done for us?

and

(B) Almost any idiot -- especially rich idiot -- whose 'oeuvre' survives (because their family had enough attic space to preserve crap) is praised sooner or later. I've just come back from Arles where Pannonia's Polaroid snaps were praised. She was a Rothschild who subsequently married someone else famous -- a Paris Hilton of her area.

Cheers,

Roger
 
Today my wife showed me some old photos that she had brought back from her visit to her family in Georgia. Some were of herself and her sisters from the '60's and '70's, when they were children and teenagers; and one was of her grandmother and her brothers, dating from the early 20th century. It was actually a copy of an old studio portrait photo that was apparently in pretty bad shape. Still, its magic was palpable.
And that made me ponder the likelihood that some day, someone would whip out a 100-year old digicam to show off an old image of their grandparents on the lcd.
 
Eddy,

Not likely.
  1. The format the images are kept in and the newer operating systems will not be able to display the old format.
  2. A hard disk crash will wipe put the only remaining copy.
  3. When transferring files to a new machine someone will forget to move the file.
  4. Someone will accidentally delete the file
Take your pick.

Steve
 
Maybe I'm alone in this, I know I am within my own family, but when I see photos from my grandparents' youth, I spend as much time thinking about the photographer as the subject. The whole thing is fascinating to me. I try to imagine what the time was like leading up to and after the photo was taken. Sadly, even when there is a studio stamp on the back or whatever, these photographers are lost to time in name--but their work is still making an impact. What does that mean? I have no idea. As far as my own work goes, it seems very unlikely that anyone will know or care about it after I'm gone...but that's ok, it's the same now! HA HA.
 
Well I was thinking I might put "Film shooter and member of www.apug.org" on my headstone, so maybe one member less would lead to a couple more newbies? And just to keep it well up in the tacky stakes, maybe it could incorporate one of those fancy di*ital photo frames so I could show off my scanned (sorry Murray!) negs on heavy rotation!!!
 
No person can judge his/her own place in history with objectivity.

Others must do that for the person. Look at each others galleries and let the comments fly!

PE
 
Photo Engineer said:
No person can judge his/her own place in history with objectivity.

Others must do that for the person. Look at each others galleries and let the comments fly!

PE
Click to expand...

Very true! I've been trying to be better about posting comments. I mean, if someone is going to put their work out there the least I can do is acknowledge it, right??
 
Or #5: The camera owner will run out of space on their card and delete everything to make space for more images. :confused:
 

Remembering "Minority Report," I suspect that future tombstones will incorporate a continuous loop hologram presentation of the life of the deceased. Maybe if you pay extra you can get the "enhanced" edited version which cleans up some of the less memorable parts and even creates a new version of your life.
 
eddym said:
Or #5: The camera owner will run out of space on their card and delete everything to make space for more images. :confused:
Click to expand...

Thanks, I missed that one because I hit the delete key and wiped out my memory.

Steve
 
My photography is like my singing in the bath, I don't worry too much if anyone else likes it as long as I enjoy it.
 

Have you seen the movie The Final Cut? Very intriguing story.

On another note, the father of a friend was a keen amateur photographer who took some excellent photographs of his mother. More interesting are the ones he took in London during the second World War. One sticks out in my mind of some wreckage he photographed from atop an adjacent building. My friend has promised to one day let me have a look through his collection. I am hoping there are some negatives in there that he would let me print for him.

- Justin
 
Like many others, I do this because I just simply love it. It would be pretty coo I'm sure, but I hold no expectation that my photographs will mean anything to anyone.

My daughter loves the weather, clouds, storms, and the like and wants to be a meteorologist. Since I have acquired a LF system, I hope to produce some cool cloud/weather photography for her to proudly display in her home someday. That form of accomplishment with my photography would be good enough for me.
 
When I look at old photos, some very old, I become aware of my interest in the captured moment and its value, at least too me, the viewer. I now see others looking at my old photos with that same, or similar, interest and it makes me happy to think that some of my personal work will be viewed with interest by others when I'm gone. It was never my reason for photographing, I do it because I enjoy doing it. My hobby!

Some of my photos have been published in books but they mean little to me personally as I was hired to produce them. That doesn't diminish there value in general though (signature quote).

My personal photography is now only monotone fiber prints because I see the value in that type over all others and I would imagine that many will be around long after I'm gone, at least in the family, for future generations. I think that's a good thought to have in mind!

Regards,
Paul
 
"If you are Yousef Karsh, your place in history includes a hotel room"

And a spot on my coffee table in Tucson!

I have long considered Karsh to be the ultimate portraitist and was thrilled to find his book: "American Portraits" for sale in great condition in a used book shop for the princely sum of $5!

Leontyne Price graces the cover and the portraits include one of Winston Churchill since, after all, his mother was an American!
 
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