Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

My Dad's folding Kodak and family photographs

I am always grateful to my father for fostering my interest in photography. He bought a camera at the same time that he joined the Royal Navy at the start of WW2 and used it all the way through on his extensive service and travels. He then used it afterwards on family occasions. I still have it and huge numbers of his photographs. He was lucky to have access to film throughout his war service as it was rationed in the UK. He was friendly with various ship's photographers who kept him supplied.

A day out on the bikes, 1948/9

A day out on the bikes, 1948/9

After the war and during my early life he documented what every family did with a camera then - the high days and holidays. I treasure them both as family memories and documents of another time. I grew up with the documenting of family occasions as being taken for granted. Importantly these prints were kept safe - as, even more importantly, were the negatives. I still have those too and they are in good condition. I know that they are largely out of fashion today but I love both the concept and the artefact of the family photo album. I still keep them, take pleasure in sticking the prints in and then, every so often browsing the contents to jog memories. Dating and identifying characters and locations at the time is important. It's too late after the event. 'We will always remember the date etc.' is fatal. Time flies and details are forgotten. 

I love the permanence of objects such as this if they are cared for. While I have always been a supporter of the democratic nature of photography and don't have a real problem with the proliferation of images today, I still think they should be cherished. I do worry that so many images now are deleted, not archived properly and not stored safely in a digital archive that we will lose a great part of our social history. It's not always possible to say at the moment of taking any photograph what it's future significance might be. 

Caernarfon Castle, 1950/1

There are also times when new technology can come to the aid of the old. While all my Father's black and white prints are still in good condition, (they must have been well processed and kept), His early colour prints have faded. This, despite being kept in albums in the dark. Until fairly recently colour print technology dictated that the dyes used were fugitive and for that reason major museums and galleries were reluctant to purchase colour prints for their collections. 

Coach trip, Caernarfon Castle, 1950/1

However, my Father wisely kept the negatives safely and they survived well. I remember him telling me that he had to send the exposed film off to Kodak in Rochester, New York for processing, as in the years just after the war very 
few places here undertook that service for amateurs. Scanning the negatives on a high-end scanner brought them back to life. The 1950's colour adding to the nostalgia. In many ways they are 'throw away' snaps but I find the social detail fascinating. The clothes in the austerity early fifties in the UK, the pre-war coaches and what would have been a memorable and rare holiday for my family.

So a plea. Please save your family photographs. Do print them out, you can't rely on hard drives or 'cloud' technology, they are not in your control. Believe me, you will miss them if you lose them.