The Luxury of Photographs
At some point in your life you've probably been asked what you would grab from your house if it was on fire. A horrible thought, but no other single question works so well to immediately sort all the contents of your home in order of importance and replace-ability. And when asked this question, very few people say they would save high-ticket items like computers and Blu-Ray players from the fire, but instead they usually say they'd grab one-of-a-kind things like heirloom jewelry and photographs.
You never realize how important the photo is going to be until long after you've taken it. It feels nice to know that certain things will be preserved in some small way, from obviously fleeting things like all those little moments from your baby's first year, to the spontaneous summer road trip that later you'd look back on as a turning point in your life. If you've got a digital camera and a computer, photos seem to be free and easy and endless.
But what if you couldn't afford the camera and computer or a traditional camera and the cost of developing film? Or, what if you had photos but they were all lost in a natural disaster?
I love hearing about people who saw a need and stepped up to fill it: The Human Photo Project provides professional portraits to families that have no other visual record of their lives. Recently The Human Photo Project traveled to New Orleans, where countless families lost everything they had, including their family photographs. Starting now, they'll have something to look back on again.
Take more pictures, appreciate them, and keep them in a safe place.
-Brigitte
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Comments
Joe436 Thursday, April 29, 2010
Someone I know makes extra money by taking people's old photos, scanning them and putting them in a video slideshow on DVD. Even adds a soundtracks to them. When he started, he made the mistake of not keeping a backup of everything. He figured it was people's personal photos and he had no right to keep them. But then he would get calls from old customers who lost the original photos and the DVD to a fire. Now he keeps a backup of everything. He says the best feeling in the world is giving someone a copy of their old photos (for free) after a personal tragedy.
Blargal Thursday, April 29, 2010
Hello,Brigitte.
Saving photographs can be done. By digitizing them, and storing them off site, you will at least have a record, though not the real world hard copy, of a favorite picture. After my mother and father passed, I was very driven to get many old pictures of them stored away on other photo hosting sites. It gives me less to worry about.
financial aid for college Wednesday, May 12, 2010
What a great resource!