I have long promised myself that I will properly sort out the multitude of photographs that currently reside in shoe boxes. I have made some effort over the years, by remembering to write names, dates and places on the reverse of the snaps, and by and large these have been catalogued in the same year. (Clearly an archivist I am not.) The above is from the Forbidden City in Peking, which we visited in November 1991.
This is the Bohemian Club, where I stayed when I visited San Francisco for the first time. Sadly there was no date on the reverse of this batch, but I managed to cross reference from my diaries and it was in September 1981.
And finally the drive at Glamis Castle in Scotland in September 1986.
Part of the project included having properly bound navy blue photograph albums made with my initials in gold embossed on the front. Several of these were produced, but alas very few photographs were affixed. So for this task to be completed properly, they will have to be sorted sequentially. But in order for that to take place there needs to be a serious edit. I can become easily distracted from this, as you might imagine.
14 comments:
I have tried and tried to go through my pictures and always fail to organize them. Love your pictures of the Forbidden City. I was also very lucky when I visited Beijing before the olympics, and there was not a soul in the Forbidden City.
Well this obviously predates the Olympics, but it was relatively empty, as it came quite soon after the "events of 4th June 1989", giving perhaps an updated meaning of "forbidden".
I'm very sympathetic.
I have those same largely unfilled albums, but in red Morocco, with place names and years stamped on the cover.
One motivation for sitting down and sorting things out are the many hundreds of pictures I have of dead relatives from the late 19th and early 20th century. I usually know who they are, but just where and when is a complete mystery. I could probably give those pictures to some library or museum and they would do it all -- but then the pictures would disappear into an archival maw never to be seen again. And that seems a waste.
Last summer when I was in the US, I tried a similar project, but my plan also included scanning the photos. Scanning means that you can store an extra copy elsewhere, in case something happens to the original, can give copies of various set to friends or relatives, and preserve the colors of fading photographs.
I was pleasantly surprised how cheap scanners have become, and how much better they do the job than the last time I used one. However, I ran across the same stumbling block--time. This would be a good taste for stormy winter days, or to mechanically process while watching a move, but it will never get done in one month.
Also, as you found out, you get distracted with all kinds of memories while doing this, although I won't count that as a drawback--it is the fun part.
--Road to Parnassus
Oh the Forbidden City must have been quite the experience. Years ago when I went to live in the US, I left behind lots of old pics in shoes boxes with my best friend who then moved away and binned my boxes - tragic. I barely exist before the age of 28.
One thing I notice about that first photo is that the bottom of the two-tone walls creates an almost perfect horizontal perspective line. It could make a fantastic modern painting . . .
Sounds like me! Instead of shoe boxes, mine are scattered in drawers. And I used to be a photo addict. Taking photos of everything and on every occasion, holiday, trip. I still have a bunch of film never used. Gosh, I love digital cameras :) Please share more photos of your travels ~ Loi
Ancient - all sounds familiar. We have many photos of family going back through the ages, but luckily they have been well documented, but where they are....? I just concern myself with more recent photos taken by yours truly.
Parnassus - your project sounds ambitious. The ones I showed are obviously scanned, and they too have faded, and I have not applied the magic of photoshop.
I weighing up whether coming across shoe box filled snaps are more of a delight than photos chronologically affixed to blue bound albums. I can't think anyone else would be much interested in them after I've gone, so it is really a vanity project. I think their blue bound state would be a sure way of clearing a room from dinner party guests. (So I suppose there is an upside!)
Tabitha - the Forbidden City, (and the adjacent Tianamen Square, connected by the Gate of Heavenly Peace - don't you love the names?), was a place I felt gave you that religious experience, as I experienced with Rome and Venice. It was more acute given the recents events that had preceded it.
Sorry to hear that you lost so many memories by someone else's careless hand. But I'm learning more about your lifestory; how fascinating.
Mark - I have to say the photo of walls of the FC is indeed rather a good shot, and would look much more dramatic enlarged. It's interesting how the tiny figures are in alignment with the bottom section of the wall too. I knew I could rely on your discerning eye!
Loi - yes, my problem too. Far too many photos, and all before the digital camera. I still take far too many, but I'm much more ruthless and can edit almost immediately. I too found some film the other day. Long expired. Perhaps I should donate to the Kodak museum, which is probably all that's left of that company.
I am of two minds about this subject.
On one hand, those boxes of miscellaneous snapshots seemed to me emblematic of all my best but failed intentions to create order out of chaos. To that end, began to organise photographs into decades or eras. Stuck the black and white images into an album of early childhood and adolescence, etc. And do you know, dear Columnist, that as soon as that was accomplished those images struck me as less potent?
Carefully arranged on a black paper page, you'd think they'd possess more impact. Not true at all. They turned into a kind of dreary wallpaper. Which fact more or less put the tin hat on any further progress in the photo archive department!
Dear Toby
Your comments do so resonate. I too think that organisation, (which I think we both enjoy) might in this instance make the whole point much less interesting. My endeavours will create an autobiography, and who is the audience? Just me. You have given me pause for thought. Again.
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