Keep Photos, Keep Memories: The Benefits of the Development of Photography

Do you remember when was the last time you placed a photo on one of those thick pages inside an album using double-sided tape? Can you remember when was the last time you hanged on the wall a photo of your kids? If not, probably you will lose some of your memories in the future.

Although the invention of photography cannot be clearly dated, there is a common consensus about the fact that the first attempt to capture photographic images using a camera obscura was around 1800. It basically consisted on an empty box with a small hole on one side and some kind of light sensitive material on the other. However, the first known photography ever made is dated around 1825. Those images needed a really long exposure time in the camera, ranging from 8 hours up to several days.

Initially, photography was a substitute for painting, especially for the middle classes, who used it mostly for family portraits. Soon, some people realized about the artistic potential of that new discipline. Some others, like George Eastman saw the economic potential and Kodak forged the famous “You press the button, we do the rest”. The instant camera was born, the photography became popular and the huge business behind it started. Our shelves full of photo albums have probably something to do with Kodak´s will to sell his products.

I recently learnt about the story of one of my colleague’s great-grandfather who, being a logistics Officer for the German Army during the WW I, documented through photographs the trip of his Company to Baghdad. My colleague discovered those images almost twenty years ago in an old box, together with old letters to her great-grandmother. He was delighted telling me the look of those black and white images in a box, together with doz...

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...oft, Dropbox and Google are some of them. Probably the most impressive is Flickr, offering 1TeraByte of data for free for certain types of archives, mostly photos.

Besides the previously mentioned methods, if you are one of those who still enjoy the feeling of the paper, there are also a lot of companies offering easy and cheap photo printing. Paper, canvas, wood, aluminum or clothes are some of the options, but your images can be printed on almost any thing, ensuring that they will be more than a bunch of electronic data.

No matter what method you choose, establish a correct workflow that ensures that your photos are being protected after you take them and attach to it. Keep doing it even if it looks like a boring task, and some day you, or someone else, will be rewarded when looking at those vintage images. And, Who knows? Maybe a book will be written about you.