Friday, February 6, 2009

History in the making

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Hi Pentaxian friends.

A while back, I watched an hour long program on the History Channel, or one of those educational channel, about how some people are collecting old Black & White and early color photographs of ordinary people, doing ordinary things. They go to flea markets, garage sales, estate auctions, and purchase old photos of people they don't even know. They sort through the lots and try to get pictures depicting the life as it really was in the past. Old photo albums often had a date written on the photograph on in the album.

It's an interesting hobby or concept. There are some expositions throughout the Country, and people are really interested in these. I would like to attend one but I need to do more research about how, when, where, these are held. If you know of any, please send me an email or post it in the comments section below, for anyone that is interested.








I started to think, that all of us, unknowingly, are capturing tomorrow's history each time we press the shutter. I'm not sure how this history will be kept for future generations as most of our pictures are kept on volatile media. There are no doubts that a hundred years from now, the photographers and collectors will look back at how primitive our equipment was. Some of our photographs, on whatever media we currently use, will survive and someone in the future will collect these images from the past.

We would be conceded to think that we have the best of everything. Just as we think that the camera equipment and the prints of a hundred years ago are obsolete, our equipment and photographs will probably not have a life as long as that, and will be regarded as obsolete in half that time. No matter what age you are, there will always be a younger generation pushing you out of the way.

So the next time you press the shutter, remember that your image might find its way to an "Old Photo Collection" of the future. Try to represent us the best you can!

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yvon,
I share your curiosity and found a Web site that has really nice old photos of many kinds. Mostly B&W but some color. These go back as far as the Civil War.
The site is http://www.shorpy.com. I particularly love the large format images of store fronts at night.

Also I'm starting to go through 40 or more photo albums my Mom put together of my family going back nearly 100 years. I can spend a long time staring on just one picture.

I think there is a lesson in this. The ones that are the most fascinating, for me anyway, are the ones that seem to be telling a story or have a theme that captures my imagination and prompts me to wonder what, who, where.

Anonymous said...

It's sad, but decades from now, when people look at photographs from the beginning of the 3rd millennium, they will wonder why there are no children in them.

Unknown said...

Why won't there be any children?