You must be the author of Giant Red Scalp thread. Sorry it looks this way.Too many words, too much preaching. Sorry you have limited tech. Are you doing a bio-style project or are you not ?
I've been planning on printing small (5x7) family photos I took in my youth, of family. The plan is to make a set each for my niece and nephews. They'll see their parents, aunt, uncles, grandparents in ways they never saw them. They will also get a sense of relatives long gone before their births. For now, I think they'll get a kick out of seeing us all as children. For the future, who knows? The photos could be passed on to their children, and become family heirlooms. That would be good enough. However, if one of their descendants is the person to cure cancer... the first Captain of the Starship Enterprise... the Governor of Mars Colony... the guy that breaks Wayne Gretzky's scoring record... then the photos would have more historic significance in 200 years.
What personal project are you working on now, how valuable will it to someone in 200 years?
I've been planning on printing small (5x7) family photos I took in my youth, of family. The plan is to make a set each for my niece and nephews. They'll see their parents, aunt, uncles, grandparents in ways they never saw them. They will also get a sense of relatives long gone before their births. For now, I think they'll get a kick out of seeing us all as children. For the future, who knows? The photos could be passed on to their children, and become family heirlooms. That would be good enough. However, if one of their descendants is the person to cure cancer... the first Captain of the Starship Enterprise... the Governor of Mars Colony... the guy that breaks Wayne Gretzky's scoring record... then the photos would have more historic significance in 200 years.
Wrapping up a project from an Annie Leibovitz Masterclass assignment, to photograph my Dad while he showed me and explained photographs of himself.
It was fun to plan and shoot. It is not my typical genre, and it moved me forward in some way.
I don't feel any motivation to have someone 200 years from now look at my photographs with any interest. I use photography as learning tool, just as I use reading and writing. Taking photographs is another way for me to (try to) understand the world around me. Ergo, my ongoing project is learning from photographs. Not so much in the documentary sense - "Oh, that's a '57 Bel Aire." But, more in the socio-political sense - "What's the meaning of this landscape we are in?" I don't take any intentional steps to archive anything beyond my own life. I'd be just as happy for all my photographs to turn back into starlight with me.
I'm a big believer in personal projects. They can be self-promotion materials for the commercial shooter, they can be very useful therapy for an artist on a personal level, and they can help any photographer regain their spark during a period of the doldrums.
I'm not as concerned with a personal history or the notion of family as it sounds like you are...but I have about a decade worth of street photography from my former small town of residence. Originally it was a way to get used to shooting film again after a long absence, then it became a fun habit and then after that it became a way to try to make sense of where I was living at a time I didn't see much hope for the future there. Like your project, it was and is important to me.
I'm just trying to wade my way through all this, but it does seem like two points apply for both of us:
• try to make this relevant to others. How can they see themselves (or what's important to them) in your work?
• have as clear an idea as possible WHY you're doing this. What's your motivation, what's your goal, how do you define this work? In other words, could you explain this idea to a third-grader child and get it across? (I think Einstein once set that parameter down as a way to tell if you've simplified it enough to persuade others).
I really don't think digital media will be very archival at all, even leaving aside how quickly the playback hardware goes obsolete.
I recall hearing an interview with Edward Burtynsky (can't recall the program but pretty sure it was on the CBC) talking about his idea for the "Ten Thousand Year Photograph"...a thought exercise about how he would create a photograph that would last for eons.
I'd suggest that a properly processed print, with text typed upon acid-free paper, will last for centuries (if properly stored).
Just because I don't have a subscription to ancestry.com does make me any less a human being.If we can't tell folks where our generations have come from, we cease to be part of our own lineage...we cease to be human beings, becoming merest ghosts or solopsists. I think that's the unfortunate condition of most photographers today.
My grandparents immigrated to the US around 1900 from towns in Russia and Poland that don't exist anymore. It's impossible to go back; there are no records of my ancestors before then. There are millions of people who are in the same situation. How do blacks go back to before they were slaves to Africa? To say we cease to be human beings is ego and self-centered. Every human is valuable. God doesn't make junk.It's not important for everyone's photos to survive. I hope and believe that in following generations the images I've distributed as sets to my family and future family some will be interested in where they have come from...and most will find their own personal identies in that context.
I've mentioned this Navajo idea before, and I agree with it: If we can't tell folks where our generations have come from, we cease to be part of our own lineage...we cease to be human beings, becoming merest ghosts or solopsists. I think that's the unfortunate condition of most photographers today.
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My grandparents immigrated to the US around 1900 from towns in Russia and Poland that don't exist anymore. It's impossible to go back; there are no records of my ancestors before then. There are millions of people who are in the same situation. How do blacks go back to before they were slaves to Africa? To say we cease to be human beings is ego and self-centered. Every human is valuable. God doesn't make junk.
Existentialism as a philosophy does not place a value on ones ancestors, much less any responsibility for their memory. That's just you making stuff up. You are of course free to believe that memory of you ancestors is a blessing.Memory of ancestry is a blessing that can sadly be lost or destroyed. I'm an existentialist and for me my generations are treasures and fragile responsibility. I've had this discussion with many Jews who mourn their generations of losses at the hands of famous European junk. I've also had this conversation with Navajo people and near illiterate Hispanic people who remember five or six generations back, value that blessing...having preserved it against all odds and God's sometimes
mixed messages.
Existentialism as a philosophy does not place a value on ones ancestors, much less any responsibility for their memory. That's just you making stuff up. You are of course free to believe that memory of you ancestors is a blessing.
My grandparents immigrated to the US around 1900 from towns in Russia and Poland that don't exist anymore. It's impossible to go back; there are no records of my ancestors before then. There are millions of people who are in the same situation. How do blacks go back to before they were slaves to Africa? To say we cease to be human beings is ego and self-centered. Every human is valuable. God doesn't make junk.
Would be interesting to read your thoughts (including motivation for) that Annie Leibovitz Masterclass.
I remember her buzzing around the San Francisco State College campus, toting a Nikkormat. Like many young women in that environment, she was very highly motivated and/but her connection with Jann Wenner at the very beginning of Rolling Stone seems to have supercharged that motivation.
Thoughts: it helped me in two ways - to better relate to a portrait subject, and to do more development into the idea of an image, or series of images. The course was not technical, and not gear-related.
Motivation for taking the course: I wanted to invest in my skills in the form of training. The Masterclass was available, convenient, reasonably priced, and I enjoy Annie's portrait work. The course gave me a list of to-dos, or mini projects, that I am slowly working through.
OK, makes sense. Did Annie's work appeal strongly to you previous?
OK, makes sense. Did Annie's work appeal strongly to you previous?
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