I suspect that you have a large stack
of photos on your hands this morning.
Hope you had fun collecting them, looking at them, remembering,
laughing, sharing them with your family.
That’s the whole purpose of photos you know; to remind us of past
people, events, and places so that we can relive those moments, or remember
those events.
If you are anything like me, you discovered
you had a LOT more photos than you realized.
We had about six or seven albums full of photos, three photo boxes chock
full of photos, and another couple shoeboxes filled to capacity.
Now it’s time to start the sorting
process. This week it’s relatively
simple: sort them into two
stacks/boxes/rooms – whatever is the appropriate size for your collection. One stack is for those that are labeled or
that you can label. The other is – you guessed
it! – for those you are unable to label.
When I say “label” I am referring to
documenting the photo: who is in it,
when it was taken, where it was taken, and why it was taken.
Yesterday a friend brought me a small
stack of photographs that she discovered.
They are lovely, clear, well-executed images of the subjects. They should be treasured family keepsakes. But sadly they are not labeled (with one
exception).
I can guess at the dates of them, based on the clothing,
and two are imprinted with a local photography studio, so it is possible they
are still in business and have records of who two of the subjects are. One photo does have a cryptic label: Lotus; Dec.; 1926. Is the child’s name really “Lotus”? If so, what is her last name? December 1926 seems a reasonable date for the
image, but that doesn’t really help us to identify the photo. I suspect that all six photographs will
continue to be mysteries.
And that is the reason it is important to label
photographs. Future generations will look
at them, admire them, but having no clue as to who they are or how they are
related to them may well relegate your treasured memories to the trash can or
the yard sale.
The “who” sometimes is more difficult
than you originally thought it would be.
You ought to write out the entire name of each person, not their relation to you. Looking at a family photo on my wall, I want
to say “that’s Dad, Mom, and the four of us girls”. And it is.
But will my grandchildren know who those people are? And in a generation or two, who is the “me”
of the label?
So I write John Robert James, Betty
Jane Tasker James, and each of the four of us girls, noting who is in the front
row, and who is in the back row, and moving left to right. Now anyone at any time will be able to
identify the folks in the picture.
Now on to the “when”. Sometimes you know immediately when a photo
was taken – it was on your birthday on 1967; Christmas of 1983; your parent’s
wedding day in 1959.
Then there will be those photos that you know approximately
when each was taken, but not a specific date.
Perhaps it was that vacation in 1996.
Or during the fall football season of your son’s junior year of high
school. Or between the time that your
dad got out of the Air Force and before your parents got married. If that is as close as you can get it, that’s
fine. Maybe later you will be able to
zero in on a specific date, but for now “fall 2003” is better than nothing.
A word about photos with the date on them. Whether from a film or a digital camera, a
date stamp can be useful, but only if it was accurate to start with. How many times have we seen digital photos
with the “01/01/01” or similar date stamp?
And perhaps that film wasn’t taken in to be developed until months or
even years later. (I found some 5 or 6
year old film in a drawer several years ago – all of those photos are date
stamped for 2005, but some were taken back in the 1990s!) So be cautious about accepting the date stamp
on the photo. It might be a good clue,
or it might lead you astray!
To be honest, the “where” aspect of the photographic label
is one that I only recently began to value.
I was usually pretty good about names and dates, but the location didn’t
seem to matter. Then I started looking
at old photos of my mom and dad in their childhood. Sometimes I recognized places and realized
that they are long gone. No one younger
than my generation would recognize the back yard of my grandparents’ house, and
they couldn’t stumble onto that bit of information because the house has been
torn down and there is no backyard any more.
So now I always try to include a city and state at the very least. And if I know a street address, I include
that, too.[1]
Now for the “why” of the photo. Again, this is often easy – it is a birthday,
graduation, wrestling match, dance recital, concert, parade, etc. But sometimes, especially if you didn’t take
the photograph, determining the “why” is more difficult. If you suspect that a family member can help
you determine the reason for the photo, put it in the “unlabeled” stack. You’ll be getting to that later.
This process may take a while. Days or weeks even. It all depends on how many photos you have
and how much you know about them. If you
aren’t sure, don’t guess. Put that photo
into the “unlabeled” stack and move on.
Again, we’ll address all of those photos another week.
One more thing to consider before you start writing all
over your photos. Do NOT use a
ball-point pen – this leaves an indentation in the photo. Instead, I would suggest that you either use
a #2 pencil (but don’t press hard or you’ll leave an indentation!) or an
acid-free pen. The one I like best is the
Pigma Micron (http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival),
which I buy at my local fabric or craft store, but you can also get them online
at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Pigma-Micron-6-Pack-Black/dp/B0008G8G8Y/ref=dp_cp_ob_ac_title_2). Whatever you use to label your photos, make
sure that the ink dries before you stack another on top of it or place in back
in the box with the others!
Next week we’re going to move away from your photo
collection. I suspect that it might take
you longer than a week to label all that you can! Until then, enjoy your photographs.
[1] By-the-way, knowing the address can lead to a fun
experience for you and your kids. Set
your child or teen up at the computer, and have them Google the address. Then do a street view of your old house or
wherever the photo was taken. See what
changes have been made (prepare yourself to be distraught when you find they
cut down that big old oak tree!), point out places that still exist, and enjoy
strolling down memory lane with your family.
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