This post is a bit different from my normal posts…..
I was at the MPA Awards dinner last weekend and heard someone talk about the fact that this could be the Century of Forgotten Images and it made me think…. In this digital age it is very easy to take a photograph. We all do it. We have tiny pocket cameras, cameras on our phones as well as the professional cameras I use for work. I love taking photographs, if I am out and about and see somewhere or something that catches my eye I will photograph it, quite often with my phone because I tend to have that with me all the time….
But what will happen to these photographs ?? what will happen to all the family holiday photos that I have stored on my hard drive ?? As a professional I back everything up, I have a cupboard full of DVD’s full of images… but is that where they are destined to stay ?? And what happens when we are no longer here.. will the family photos stay lost on an old hard drive that ends up in the tip because no-one has bothered to look at it (or even has a clue what is on it ??)
I have a box of old photographs in a cupboard at home, family memories, odd moments, holidays and happy times. I have our wedding photos, photos of the children’s christenings and birthdays, photos of my old school friends. It is something you can sit down with and look through and reminisce. We also have old cine film, and other home movies…. this is where the problem starts…. technology has changed and moved on and we no longer have all the equipment needed to play these old films, yes we can send them off and get them put on DVD but in a generation will the DVD be obsolete as well ? who knows…. but I will still have my box of photographs and albums to look through..
So, are we in danger of losing a century of images ?? Yes, I think we are, there will still be the news images from this century but we are in danger of losing the social history that all our family photos tell….