What are the challenges with old achieve photographs? Find your oldest photograph that you are happy to share and discuss the process or challenges with the sharing.
I knew that I had images taken when I was eight, before the cloud and before the internet. The achieve process back then was take the print and stick it to a bit of card. Simple solution for and eight year old. I have stored the sheets of card in various locations over the years, none of them special. Maybe with hindsight I should have taken more care of them.
Technology has advanced and sharing images is something that everyone takes for granted every day. Quick snap with the mobile phone the off to the cloud to store and share on Instagram and Facebook.
Scanning the old image and transferring it to the computer is and easy task although takes a few more minutes that a phone capture. Out of Lightroom and away to the cloud.
Quality of the 1970’s print leaves a lot to be desired due to the fixed focus point and shoot Agfa 126 camera that I used but it invokes the memory of the time the image was taken. I remember taking it and the camera but when it was slips away from me. I have seen the image many times over the years but never thought about it. The re-visit to scan and upload and think about the memory has caused the image to be ‘looked’ at. The memory of the event has changed, been forgotten.
I have proof it happened but the facts of the event are being lost. Without documentation and context this image will slip into a wonder who they were? picture as Roland Barthes discusses in Camera Lucida. It already is.
I can date the image from elements within the image because I was there. External viewers may be able to date the image with the car in the background or the Raleigh Shopper bike against the wall, putting it in the ’70s. The location and other information will be lost as the image has no EXIF data, unlike many modern pictures.
For the record It is Simon and James @ 34 Bar Lane, Stapleford. Early 1970’s
Time clearly changes memory of events and the image can only preserve what we can remember whilst leaving bread crumbs for the parts that are lost. So how true is history when individuals can’t remember events truly?
