What are your plans for your photos when you are gone?

[gonzogolf]

Do you have a plan for your photos when you aren't around anymore? A recent health scare made me consider this. If I were to go suddenly my photos would probably linger then eventually disappear. I don't have family that has any skill and little interest in photography.

I'd like for at least some of the more interesting things I've shot to live on in some fashion. Ideally I'd donate them somewhere where they could be used in some to fashion. I know that libraries often have collections of printed photos for public access. Does anyone know of any libraries or archives that accept digital images?

 

[Cliff Hilbert]

I'm going to donate mine to the Smithsonian.

 

[Jack Dawe]

Mine aren't worth preserving. My family will sort out any photos they want to keep (holidays, each other, etc.). Everything else will be deleted.

 

[paddler4]

I'm slowly creating Smugmug galleries for family members, and I'm restoring a few photos from earlier generations to add to them.

I have cartons of snapshots from previous generations, and while it's a treat to find some of them, it's a huge chore to sort through them. I figure that having a smaller set accessible online that they can print if they want will make it less burdensome. However, this makes me realize that I have to tell my executor not to turn that off too quickly.

 

[nevermore]

Do you have a plan for your photos when you aren't around anymore? A recent health scare made me consider this. If I were to go suddenly my photos would probably linger then eventually disappear. I don't have family that has any skill and little interest in photography.

I'd like for at least some of the more interesting things I've shot to live on in some fashion. Ideally I'd donate them somewhere where they could be used in some to fashion. I know that libraries often have collections of printed photos for public access. Does anyone know of any libraries or archives that accept digital images?

Thanks for planting that thought. ;-)

Following ....

 

[gonzogolf]

I'm going to donate mine to the Smithsonian.

I know you are joking, but I wish something similar was possible. I've got some wildlife shots and some shots of political events that might have some residual value going forward. When physical prints were the end product they were more likely to be retained and passed down. Seemingly inane photos take on a renewed interest as time goes by and styles change, landmarks spring up and are torn down.

 

[Cathy_B]

Wow, that's certainly a question to ask! I haven't really thought of it, partly because I know a wish of mine is not a guarantee, so when I'm not around I'm just not and that's it, I won't care.
On the other hand, I hope my SO goes through them and prints something he likes or makes a collage out of them, etc. However, if he makes a cheesy smartshow 3d video with pictures I never particularly liked, I'll try my best to go back and haunt him forever, so I probably need to do a proper culling once I feel my health declining

 

[ShipleyNW]

Hadn't really given it much thought. I'm more of a catch and release guy.

A couple of months ago, though, I got an offer from Shutterfly, via Flickr, for a free, 25-page, hard-cover photo book. I like free, so I spent an hour or so working on their website and put a book together with some of my favorite shots, mostly one shot per page. It's nice. It's a coffee table book. An heirloom. I might do more of them. Shutterfly and I are best friends now. They send me 2 emails every day.

 

[Fogey]

I have my best shots on canvas - so they can be fought over when I'm gone.

 

[Archibald]

It seems that the next generation has little interest in my stuff. But the generation after that might.

I don't know what photos they might be interested in. My own tastes have changed a lot about my own archived photos. Years ago my interest was in my artistic photos. Now it is almost entirely the people pictures.

I have made and distributed a digital archive of the older photos and other documents that might be of interest to the future people. Now it is up to them to decide what they do with them. Most likely the collection won't even be looked at for years, maybe decades.

I'm contemplating making photo books of important family photos. Books are harder to ignore than files.

 

[TheAnalogGuy]

Nothing! My eldest daughter is a dedicated photographer so I guess she likes her own pictures.
And BTW, my children can not relate to my pictures since many are taken during my jobtravelling and thus they are indifferent to them!

 

[MakisM1]

My wife took an interest in photo books, she started with a book about our trip to Kruger National Park (around 400 pics, about 90 pages, including all the information about the subject in each photo (name of the species etc). She used a company called Mixbook, which has a browser based editing program. She then started producing books narrating our life since we got together (ca 1979) and currently is on her 5th book (the early oughts). I think that she might slow down, because using digital photography, she will have to wade through thousands of photos from my database. In between, she took time to produce her Opus, the history of her family going back to the mid 1800s, for 4 branches of her ancestors lines. She gave copies to the surviving brothers of her late fathers and their reception was amazing. My son will inherit the books (and my photos) and he can keep what interests him (after my wife and I are gone).

Here is a sample, 2 pages open side by side

 

[Archibald]

My wife took an interest in photo books, she started with a book about our trip to Kruger National Park (around 400 pics, about 90 pages, including all the information about the subject in each photo (name of the species etc). She used a company called Mixbook, which has a browser based editing program. She then started producing books narrating our life since we got together (ca 1979) and currently is on her 5th book (the early oughts). I think that she might slow down, because using digital photography, she will have to wade through thousands of photos from my database. In between, she took time to produce her Opus, the history of her family going back to the mid 1800s, for 4 branches of her ancestors lines. She gave copies to the surviving brothers of her late fathers and their reception was amazing. My son will inherit the books (and my photos) and he can keep what interests him (after my wife and I are gone).

Here is a sample, 2 pages open side by side

View attachment 69029

Sounds really nice, and like a lot of work.

 

[hammer]

Mine aren't worth preserving. My family will sort out any photos they want to keep (holidays, each other, etc.). Everything else will be deleted.

Same here !

 

[SJones82]

To the grave.

 

[Bill in Texas]

I have been thinking about this recently and have two granddaughters that I will assign a hard drive to and my daughter will get one as well. What they do with them, I'll never know but at least they will know that I hoped some would be preserved.

I had a great uncle in Miami, Florida with a studio in a hotel that many celebrities stayed in and he photographed many of them. He was with Paton during WWII and there wer photos from that time as well. My dad and his brother got a few of them from their aunt but most ended up with a couple of people interested in the art in Miami and they sit in boxes somewhere, wasting away. Myself and one cousin had tried for several years to get access to them but the people in Florida were uninterested in helping us.

The moral is, if you have someone with half an interest in your work, tell them you want them to have it.

 

[kayaknchic]

Do you have a plan for your photos when you aren't around anymore? A recent health scare made me consider this. If I were to go suddenly my photos would probably linger then eventually disappear. I don't have family that has any skill and little interest in photography.

I'd like for at least some of the more interesting things I've shot to live on in some fashion. Ideally I'd donate them somewhere where they could be used in some to fashion. I know that libraries often have collections of printed photos for public access. Does anyone know of any libraries or archives that accept digital images?

This was a topic at the Out of Chicago Photography conference this year. I had never given it any thought, but it certainly garnered a great deal of interest. I suspect mine will continue on in the digital black hole long after I am gone, but I like many of the ideas mentioned here. Leaving a hard drive or password access to an online presence sounds like a great idea if there is/are people interested in preserving the collection. The books also sound good, especially if they tell the story. Sadly, we have many photo albums full of pics of people and places we know nothing about.

 

[Dicky109]

Do you have a plan for your photos when you aren't around anymore? A recent health scare made me consider this. If I were to go suddenly my photos would probably linger then eventually disappear. I don't have family that has any skill and little interest in photography.

I'd like for at least some of the more interesting things I've shot to live on in some fashion. Ideally I'd donate them somewhere where they could be used in some to fashion. I know that libraries often have collections of printed photos for public access. Does anyone know of any libraries or archives that accept digital images?

I'm in the same boat as you, although I probably don't have many photos that anyone would want. That said, whenever we get together with our adult children and spouses, they always want to see photos of when our kids were young, parents, grandparents, other family and friends who are gone. Little by little I've been scanning old photos of family & such and a few years ago, I made a hard drive for each of them and asked them to bring them back now & then to be updated. They never have, even though I remind them.
Unfortunately, neither of our children have kids of their own and being in their 50's or approaching same, never will, So I have resigned myself to the fact, that my photos will die with me, as they don't have the interest. In my opinion, while us old folk prized photographs as unique projections of people and things, to look at fondly, with today's culture of photographing every meal you eat and posting it for the world to see, photos have lost their meaning to many of the younger generation.

 

[Pantry42]

Hopefully my family will inherit my storage drives, but my better efforts, and I am not what I consider to be a decent photographer, will be here for as long as this Forum lasts. Facebook, where I generally post stuff I take is only for wider family and friends only viewing and I have asked my son to keep that going as long as he can after I shuffle off of this mortal coil (what the hell is a mortal coil anyway??) But all this depends on what medium will still be accessible long after I'm gone....but then again I wont concern me either way, I will be just be an exteremely tiny speck of dust in the entire universe.

 

[gitarzan]

I'm sure mine will all get wiped from my Macs, All the printed ones will get glanced at and tossed. I hold no pretense of them ever becoming anything other than trash or vapor.