Digital BW, The Print

On Nov 24, 2004, at 9:33 AM, Francis Ford wrote:

>
> I have maybe 150 photographs over a period of 35 years
> that are worth holding on to,maybe 5 of those are not
> from film.People who worry about millions of files or
> negs have to learn how to edit.Who has a million great
> photgraphs? No one.  I had a huge fire 25 years
> ago,but my negs were spared.Do you think I would learn
> my lesson? Nah,everything is still in one place.I back
> stuff up,but its not for posterity,its so I don't have
> to play with a file again.Francis Ford

People take photos for many reasons; while this group is full of 
professionals, I'm also sure we all shoot snapshots. Sure, in terms of 
numbers of great works of art, I think most of us would be lucky that a 
few percent of the frames we shot met this standard. But I, for one, 
shoot many types of events and subjects; some sentimental, private, 
personal, or just straight documentary. I can confidently say I have 
several thousand - at very least - images which I consider worth 
keeping according to various criteria. You may not find them all art, 
but they are every bit as precious as letters and other sentimental 
items. If we all restricted ourselves to 150 photographs in an archive, 
there would not be much photographic cultural heritage in a hundred 
years.

Archiving is not restricted to "great photographs". It's as broad as 
what an individual finds valuable, and you may be surprised but most 
often the least artistic images are of the most interest to future 
generations. If all we had to remember history by was through contrived 
works of art, we'd have a very short memory.

-R