Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sonny Carter said: > > Such a good point, Ted. Among the photographs in our wonderful collection > are the entire negative file and hundreds of prints of a local photographer > who spent his career right here. Of course, they are the test prints, and > those that were not quite good enough to give to the customer, sometimes > proofs that were not sold. He shot weddings, beauty pageants, stuff for the > sheriff, for the newspapers, almost anything that a guy living in a small > town could do to make a living. > > The upshot is that it is a fabulous document of our little town's life from > about 1950 until the middle 70's. > > We run shots from his work in the newspaper from time to time, and also do > exhibits in our library and in the Research Center Reading Room. > > I really am glad he did not clean house!<<<<< Hi Sonny, When I give lectrues or presentations to photo students, clubs and or professionals, I make a point of how valuable our photo files are, simply because each and everyone of us are the recorders of our times. There isn't anyone hired to go around the country and document life in every nook and cranny or village, so our files are very important to any archives. Quite often happy snaps of the old mill or factory when it blew-up or burned down maybe the only photo records even by an amature, so they become very important for their historical value. From the war years till 1971-2 the National Film Board of Canada produced stills documentaries on life in Canada, all kinds of subjects so varied it never ended until the some stupid federal government politicians, whom we know are a bunch of clueless morons in any country, couldn't see any value in documenting how we lived and worked in Canada. So the projects were cancelled. :-( And for the past 30 years there hasn't been a proper documentation of how our country has evolved in its diversity and ethnic changes. A real shame when you see what was done for the 30 plus years prior. So each of us are the recorders of our times, the more we shoot and have fun from our first love of photography, the greater the legacy we leave for our future families and the country as a whole. I realize there'll be some who wont understand this value of their pictures, but when I can go back 50 plus years and see what the city I lived in at the time and people looked like. Or pictures of our children when they were little and now parents themselves, the value of still photographs is one of the great assets any photographer can leave for his family and possibly for his country. So lets be careful out there folks to what you throw away! You may have some diamonds in that neg and slide collection of yours. ted - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html