Photographic memories

I've been thinking a lot about preservation lately as I have been studying the conservation of artifacts and the issues that arise with regards to saving the past. This got me thinking about the mountain of photographs I uncovered two years ago when I was helping to clean out my grandmother's house before she moved to a smaller setting. The images didn't have any real value to her--they were in a giant pile--and yet upon looking through them she had lots to say.

 

Included in the bunch were hundreds of photographs that my father took with his very first Kodak camera. They are fascinating views of his family and neighborhood, all through the fresh vantage point of a child; this a viewpoint that no adults can ever really replicate.  As I was thinking about the question of value with regards to documents, it occurred to me that these images have way more than sentimental value, they have historical value too. The clothes and people are a record of that time and place. The houses, cars, and other ephemeral items really are a testament to how people used to live. And more than that, the images record fleeting moments that would otherwise be lost.

I have not organized this massive image archive to date (I usually get distracted by the content when looking through them); however I did decide to start by scanning a set of my father's early negatives. Below is a small sampling of that effort, which ultimately goes a long way to preserving a little piece of my family's past.