your life: bio as photojournalism.

[jtk]

Project underway:

I'm working currently to edit, properly title, and organize files from several hundred photos of my immediate family (no snaps of holidays, birthdays etc) and my historic family back into 19th century...(my grandfather's infancy ...he photographed San Francisco 06 earthquake). My family has always loved photography and I have their Kodak Autographic.

I spent intense months scanning the original prints and negs....many were very fine studio portraits from early 20th century...was surprised at images in several ancient candid 616 negatives.

And of course I am using my own negatives and digital files, tho the negs are more fun.

I made of these files about 10 years ago....now, looking again, I'm having great dreams and experiencing great warmth for my people...they all feel alive.

These may ALL be printed on 5X7 if I can afford the time (and many do look great at letter size and beyond), but they will all first be identified properly, organized and saved on hard drives and thumb drive/s if relatives that express interest I'm not optimistic about their interest, sadly, but I think this project may attract gallery interest and it's been very important to me.


What are YOU doing along this line? Suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[Colin Corneau]

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).

 

[Bob Carnie]

I am in the midst of printing all my archives, picking the prints based on Gallery shows I participate in.. Right now I am back to my Metal Series for a show in Montreal... I am also working on other series for a few other gallerys.

It is constant and a lot of fun.. I am now only making final edition prints and am no longer making prints for tests... It takes a long time to sort out what I want to show as a representation of me a printmaker and photographer.
This is going to take a few years before I am really deep into what I have in the archives. Some of the work is generic landscapes , other is solarizations, it is really hard to work this out but I am very happy to do this.

My goal is to leave behind a permanent record of my work.

 

[jtk]

Bob, my project is some kind of bio.. my photographed ancestors are part of me. Part of this is a personal exploration...or excavation. In the end, because many of the old photos (not my shots) are exceptionally beautiful and I scanned them well, I can print them well..at least dozens, all in TIFF.

My goal isn't "to leave behind a permanent record of my work" ...it's more a matter of my responsibility to several generations of my life and their lives as California and San Francisco pioneers.

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Yes, this is "fun" and it's also compelling.

 

[jtk]

Colin, thanks especially for those "two points." My motivation is becoming increasingly clear... I decided over the weekend that I'd need to write something about that.

This will be first, and maybe most importantly, be produced on thumb drive...for sharing purposes. I think digital records will be more archival than any print medium, but that's an old argument. I may think more like Dali, wanting more fools to see what I've done and who I was (!) than wanting to produce a work of art. More like a slide show, tho I'll make prints while I decide their role.

 

[removed account4]

im kind of running amok still.
one of these days i will go through it all
and find 3 or 5 different projects i was working on all-at-once.
its probably going to end up a dumpster fire ..

 

[Peter Schrager]

im kind of running amok still.
one of these days i will go through it all
and find 3 or 5 different projects i was working on all-at-once.
its probably going to end up a dumpster fire ..

But it will smell like coffee..right??

 

[Colin Corneau]

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).

 

[Bob Carnie]

I would love to see the interview from Ed about a 10 thousand year photograph...

 

[jtk]

It doesn't matter what anybody"thinks" of the future of conventionally backed-up and managed digital archives.

By contrast, think what we, know with certainty about our alleged "archives" of paper: Most of today's paper prints will be lost to boredom, discarded in moves or lack of space, destroyed in handling etc.

What matters is the value of saved images to somebody in the future. If images have little value today (birthday and vacation snaps, street etc) , their future value is virtually nil.

How many fine, archival paper prints of important-to-your-family (or anybody) do you have from 1984 (for example)? I have dozens from cc 1914...all digitized, many printed archivally

Which will remain more perfectly in 200 years, Edward Weston's already-decaying contact prints or the digital files that save them for future Edward Weston Daybooks ?

My personal challenge is to complete my own digital (and partially paper) project . That work may have real value to unknown persons in a future generation...and it is of increasing value to me .

Blathering about digital Vs paper archives while whistling-thru-graveyard about value of our images is merest gas.

What personal project are you working on now, how valuable will it to someone in 200 years?

 

[Colin Corneau]

I would love to see the interview from Ed about a 10 thousand year photograph...

I remember it was on the CBC program Spark, from 2008. Just checking now if stupid CBC has it archived or not.

http://blog.longnow.org/02008/07/24/edward-burtynsky-the-10000-year-gallery/

 

[jtk]

What personal project are you working on now, how valuable will it to someone in 200 years?

 

[Bob Carnie]

I'm just trying to make the best art that I can, for my own purposes. It won't be of any value to anyone in 200 years.

If you keep shooting locations in Montreal, they certainly will.. You are recording your timeline in that city.

 

[Bob Carnie]

It was very common to photograph buildings, and places , windows , I think of Phil Bergerons work.. this went out of stye but I believe it still is important to document the spaces around you.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I have thought about walking around and recording buildings and locations that will hit the wrecking ball at sometime , but this really is not my photography , it would be like work to me , but I certainly find it important and worthy to do. Simple images that show the quirky things we do.

I think this is why I got on my series of objects , because someday these things will not be around and I hope some of my prints will to show the things we owned, used, consumed.

 

[Bob Carnie]

One of my main influences was/is George Tice.

I can really see that in your work, and just quickly looking at his urban landscape page, I think his work is exactly what I am talking about , but like I said I prefer the still life's . I encourage you to continue as
it is important.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'm lost in differently sized letters and all over questions.
So, I just address major OP concern for how his and his family pictures of something else rather than family pictures are going to be valuable in 200 years.

Number one. This civilization turned into the phase then changes, multiple changes coming within short period of time. Countries come and go, changing its landscapes, population and else.
It is all getting reflected in the images taken on daily basis. Two decades and it is changed. People not allowed to say anymore certain things, not allowed to write them, language on streets signs changing, dress code is different and so on.
In 200 years from now cocking at home might become absolute. And home parties might be banned for suspicious political activities.
Local big food chain store is now selling biomass from cockroaches. Where are farms doing it now. In Ontario. But twenty years ago all they knew here was the burger.
So, value of street pictures which OP placed in the nil as of now and for OP is different. Because it is not even secret how to make successful street photography. Take decent picture, wait for twenty years, share. It is going to be popular. Guaranteed. Popular means demand, demand means valuable. Not nil.

Number two. Forget about money. And forget about glory too. If you have whatever project which is aimed to 200 time frame - share it with public and electronically by as many methods as possible.
Use free blogs, google storing, sharing mechanisms, social media and so on.
And forget about museums, those are for and about profit and their agendas. Many museums sits on millions of pictures now and do nothing. Local AGO is one of them. Millions of photographs, plates and so on. Zero interest to share with public. Yet, if name of the photog is known - they make money on it. Just like they did with Outsiders. Big part of it was nothing but street photography and sort of cosplay (cross dressing), party pictures. Actually some of it was just like regular family archive. And the reason why it is made it was due to trendy part.

 

[faberryman]

What matters is the value of saved images to somebody in the future.

What matters is the value of a project to me now. I have no control over the future or what will be of interest to others. It is not what motivates me to create.

 

[removed account4]

book form seems to be the best way to deal with these small projects.
make blurb books and put them up there .. and blurb will become the
photographic library / repository of the world ..

 

[Mr Bill]

I have been going through some older family photos, mostly b&w negs taken by my father throughout much of his life. Some were taken by his mother, who had taken on the role of documenting family, mostly with a Brownie camera, I believe. These are going back to the 1920s, or so, with only a few people still alive who can identify all the people.

I'm trying to collect a little info to go with them, estimating dates, etc., in order to pass on to future generations. Hopefully there will be one or two among them interested enough to preserve the negs and pass them on.

But this is not why I'm really posting. Rather it's about an Excel spreadsheet I've been playing with that has been useful in trying to figure out who's who in some photos. But first, I should say that I have the date of birth, and death, as well as marriage dates for a large number of them - someone in another branch of the family had compiled these, largely via one of the online services, I think.

What I did was to list most of the names, followed by birthdate, etc. Then, the useful part - I set a column where I can enter an age for one individual. (If they're under about 5 years, or graduating from school, or just drafted into military, it's easy to estimate within a year or two.) The spreadsheet calculates that date, and then uses it to get the age of everyone on that date. So I can look at the photo; do the people I THINK are in the shot seem to be the right age? Sometimes I see that, oh, so and so had died prior to that date, so who else might one of these people be? Anyway, this has been a useful tool in trying to get an approximate date on older photos, and check the plausibility via everyone's ages.

Anyway, such a spreadsheet turns out to be a very useful tool when doing the detective work of identifying people. Certainly all can be done with manual calculations, but when you only need a single entry you don't lose your train of thought in the process.

One last note: Excel date functions don't work prior to 1900, so you need a workaround for that. I ended up working with with the year in a decimal format - if someone was born halfway through 1880, for example, I would use 1880.5 as the basis for age calcs, recognizing that the leap year thing can leave me a couple days in error (I use 365 1/4 days in a year as an approximate conversion).

 

[jtk]

I'm lost in differently sized letters and all over questions.
So, I just address major OP concern for how his and his family pictures of something else rather than family pictures are going to be valuable in 200 years.

Number one. This civilization turned into the phase then changes, multiple changes coming within short period of time. Countries come and go, changing its landscapes, population and else.
It is all getting reflected in the images taken on daily basis. Two decades and it is changed. People not allowed to say anymore certain things, not allowed to write them, language on streets signs changing, dress code is different and so on.
In 200 years from now cocking at home might become absolute. And home parties might be banned for suspicious political activities.
Local big food chain store is now selling biomass from cockroaches. Where are farms doing it now. In Ontario. But twenty years ago all they knew here was the burger.
So, value of street pictures which OP placed in the nil as of now and for OP is different. Because it is not even secret how to make successful street photography. Take decent picture, wait for twenty years, share. It is going to be popular. Guaranteed. Popular means demand, demand means valuable. Not nil.

Number two. Forget about money. And forget about glory too. If you have whatever project which is aimed to 200 time frame - share it with public and electronically by as many methods as possible.
Use free blogs, google storing, sharing mechanisms, social media and so on.
And forget about museums, those are for and about profit and their agendas. Many museums sits on millions of pictures now and do nothing. Local AGO is one of them. Millions of photographs, plates and so on. Zero interest to share with public. Yet, if name of the photog is known - they make money on it. Just like they did with Outsiders. Big part of it was nothing but street photography and sort of cosplay (cross dressing), party pictures. Actually some of it was just like regular family archive. And the reason why it is made it was due to trendy part.

Too many words, too much preaching. Sorry you have limited tech. Are you doing a bio-style project or are you not ?

 

[jtk]

I have been going through some older family photos, mostly b&w negs taken by my father throWughout much of his life. Some were taken by his mother, who had taken on the role of documenting family, mostly with a Brownie camera, I believe. These are going back to the 1920s, or so, with only a few people still alive who can identify all the people.

I'm trying to collect a little info to go with them, estimating dates, etc., in order to pass on to future generations. Hopefully there will be one or two among them interested enough to preserve the negs and pass them on.

But this is not why I'm really posting. Rather it's about an Excel spreadsheet I've been playing with that has been useful in trying to figure out who's who in some photos. But first, I should say that I have the date of birth, and death, as well as marriage dates for a large number of them - someone in another branch of the family had compiled these, largely via one of the online services, I think.

What I did was to list most of the names, followed by birthdate, etc. Then, the useful part - I set a column where I can enter an age for one individual. (If they're under about 5 years, or graduating from school, or just drafted into military, it's easy to estimate within a year or two.) The spreadsheet calculates that date, and then uses it to get the age of everyone on that date. So I can look at the photo; do the people I THINK are in the shot seem to be the right age? Sometimes I see that, oh, so and so had died prior to that date, so who else might one of these people be? Anyway, this has been a useful tool in trying to get an approximate date on older photos, and check the plausibility via everyone's ages.

Anyway, such a spreadsheet turns out to be a very useful tool when doing the detective work of identifying people. Certainly all can be done with manual calculations, but when you only need a single entry you don't lose your train of thought in the process.

One last note: Excel date functions don't work prior to 1900, so you need a workaround for that. I ended up working with with the year in a decimal format - if someone was born halfway through 1880, for example, I would use 1880.5 as the basis for age calcs, recognizing that the leap year thing can leave me a couple days in error (I use 365 1/4 days in a year as an approximate conversion).

Thanks for your experience and suggestions. Yes, what I know through direct experience with the individuals (some long dead) and from letters (which I may scan and include) and from family gossip and memory (e.g. conversations from when I was a child) are for me crucial...I've identified everyone in my photos and remember tales and emotional feelings I picked up as a child.

Spreadsheet is a good idea...however I am simply using Word (and even saved emails) and including Word docs and newspaper items my photo files. I'll update written info if I find that's necessary.

I'm not doing genealogy per se, I'm doing a photo-driven bio that centers on me and one side of my family. I'd work with both "sides" except I have no useful photo records, and few memories, of the other parental side.

I think it's tragic when people don't know anything significant about their ancestors. I spend a lot of time among Navajo, i.e. Dine' (which means "people") who seem always to distrust the peculiar types who can't immediately recite simple lineage...all conversations begin with a hello and then statement about two or more levels of clan...most know more than two levels.

 

[jtk]

book form seems to be the best way to deal with these small projects.
make blurb books and put them up there .. and blurb will become the
photographic library / repository of the world ..

I've yet to see a Blurb that rivals loose prints. I prioritize the large TIFFs that constitute my project but will print several sets for exhibit purposes. I am enabling fine digital printing by unknown persons in the future. I think the photographic library of the future will continue to be today's cloud, as well as our individual tech and even prints.

Another scanned project....photos of a European family that moved through 19th century Russia and was moved to Harbin, China before the Bolshevik revolution. I think they were "moved" as an alternative to being forced or killed by Tsar Nicholas. In Harbin they established what's obviously a comfortable life, unlike the fiddler-on-roof types who found themselves in Chinese boondocks. I don't know these people, do read a very little Russian... I've put a partially imaginative story together to create coherence .. Bought the prints, plus some of these folks' postcards, from gypsies at a Northern California flea market...dozens, plus their old suitcase, for what I had in my pocket: $7.50. Would have cost more and taken a lot of time if it hadn't started to rain...cc 1970

 

[Mr Bill]

I think it's tragic when people don't know anything significant about their ancestors.

I gotta say, when I was younger I didn't give a hoot about family history. It's something that became of interest to me much later; I can't really say what in particular started it. Perhaps it was the realization that the people who DID know most about it were gradually "going away," and that this "history" was becoming very fragile.

 

[removed account4]

yeah blurb books don't rival loose prints but at least it is uploaded and free storage and if you preview the images free to look at
and inexpensive to print ... ive made a few bucks over the years making hand stitched books of photographs, takes boo-coo <sic> hours and effort
and whlle connisours <sic > can tell the difference between the real-deal the 99.999% who might enjoy looking at photographs
ignorance is bliss and they don't really give a cr@p ... i remember when i was in grad school doing a renovation report on an old local diner
( well, not that old, it was from the 40s and was quite rare ) i had to do a deed and title project, history of the area / region as well as give my recommendation
for renovation practices to bring it back to its original/former glory .. i happened upon old post cards from the turn of the century and made color xeroxes of them
( probably the same low tech solution blurb uses ) and those little post cards looked like oil and watercolor paintings. they were absolutely beautiful.
these color xeroxes were done back in the day when to get a 35mm slide xeroxed they projected it onto the aluminum foil covered back of the light dam
and reflected it down onto the glass. it was quite the dog and pony show

these projects of yours sound great. and the acquisition sounds like it was out of a john le carre novel.
i hope your project includes photograping the suitcase !