Prints,negatives and slides: Any ideas as to what to do with all the many photos and slides that are no longer wanted. Will anyone want them? How can the be passed on to people who...

Trixsy Pixsy Loc: WELLS SOMERSET UK

Any ideas as to what to do with all the many photos and slides that are no longer wanted. Will anyone want them? How can the be passed on to people who might be interested in them?
I will be keeping some but have loads I will have to get rid of. Any ideas!

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

I took thousands when a teenager, especially of my local area ALL changed now, the Library and museum jumped at them

Malcolm B Loc: Leicester (UK)

A lot depends on the subjects of your pictures. If they have some historical context, i.e. buildings that are not longer about or street scenes before redevelopment, the the local civc society or museum may be interested. If they are family snaps then ask the family, particularly if there is a family member who is into researching the family background. When we cleared my late mother-in-law's flat there were very few photos, she had cleared most of the out, which for us was not a good idea. Family history needs to be retained, or at least I think so.

If you are going to try and dispose of them then you may need to sort them into categories so that prospective takers know what topics they are getting. Could be a long and difficult process, particularly if you have not used complete films on one subject. For the negs, do you have contact sheets? If you do, that will help considerably.

Happy sorting.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Trixsy Pixsy wrote:

Any ideas as to what to do with all the many photos and slides that are no longer wanted. Will anyone want them? How can the be passed on to people who might be interested in them?
I will be keeping some but have loads I will have to get rid of. Any ideas!

It can be a long tedious job, but I have sorted, culled, and then scanned most of the slides, prints and negatives I've accumulated over 5 decades (along with those of my parents and in-laws). Most are now digitized, clearly labeled, and sorted by family, person, category, event, etc.

A quality scanner can handle this task and can be purchased for under $300. Epson makes an excellent scanner for the money. As with cameras, you get what you pay for in a scanner.

I have burned CDs/DVDs with family image collections and shared them with anyone in the family who was interested. The more digital copies out there, the more likely they will survive.

You can also store them on line, but that has its own set longevity uncertainty.

Trixsy Pixsy Loc: WELLS SOMERSET UK

Thanks for responses. Any more ideas?

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Trixsy Pixsy wrote:

Any ideas as to what to do with all the many photos and slides that are no longer wanted. Will anyone want them? How can the be passed on to people who might be interested in them?
I will be keeping some but have loads I will have to get rid of. Any ideas!

Hopefully you've scanned all that you could feasibly want later before discarding them. Do you have relatives who would like to have them for sentimental value and they aren't into digital and computers?

Unless you are famous enough, or have the potential of becoming famous enough, that somebody will want to create a museum in testament to your greatness after you croak, I suspect you could have a colorful bonfire with them.

Coolcameragirl Loc: Bradenton, FL

I also had many, many slides. One year for Christmas I decided to make books for my grown children. I scanned slides onto my computer and organized the photos of my kids from birth through college graduation - baby pictures, bd parties, ballet recitals, wrestling matches, Halloween, Christmas, etc. Each book was personalized for each kid. My children and grandchildren loved them and my son volunteered to take all the rest of the slides, scan them and be the next generation "keeper".

Trixsy Pixsy Loc: WELLS SOMERSET UK

Thankyou for comments
I dont think I will be THAT famous (though I have held local exhibitions and sold a few)
MAYBE RELATIVES COULD BE THE ANSWER IF THEY CAN MAKE ROOM FOR A SELECTED FEW.
I'm passing on some family ones But there are loads of holiday pics from my many travels.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

marcomarks wrote:

...Unless you are famous enough, or have the potential of becoming famous enough, that somebody will want to create a museum in testament to your greatness after you croak, I suspect you could have a colorful bonfire with them.

Sad but true.
No one really wants to acknowledge that by lighting the fire.
So it gets stored in the attic or basement....for someone else to discard.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Trixsy Pixsy wrote:

Any ideas as to what to do with all the many photos and slides that are no longer wanted. Will anyone want them? How can the be passed on to people who might be interested in them?
I will be keeping some but have loads I will have to get rid of. Any ideas!

I had the same problem, and I solved it. The pictures I don't like, don't need, or don't recognize get tossed. If there is a family photo from fifty years ago, maybe someone will want it - and maybe not. We attach too much importance to many of our photos. I have about twenty large albums full of pictures. They're nice to look at, but I've never gone back and looked at all of them. I also have several thousand images stored on my computer. Too much!

I've recently been going through loads of pictures from 40 - 50 years ago. Only a few are worth keeping - poor quality and lots of repeats.

Unless your pictures are of historical significance or sentimental value, there is no reason to keep them.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

jerryc41 wrote:

quote=Trixsy Pixsy Any ideas as to what to do wit... (show quote)

I think you are right.
But I'm sentimental and once discarded, old family photos they cannot be retrieved.
It is a conundrum for me while my siblings toss out stuff before it ever gets to an album.
I guess I inherited the defective gene in my family. Photograph hoarder!

the hiker Loc: San Diego

all the pictures I took when I was in the U S Navy and sent home ended up in a album by my Mother which she gave me years later along with all the pictures of me taken from the time I was born up til the present. My mother did this for every child in the familey 9 of us and gave them to each of us when they got married or moved away from home. she also has albums of all pictures taken when she was growing up. I will probley have then scaned onto a c d sometime in the future. if you do not want to scan them there are places that will do it for you.One place out here in San Diego charges $150.00 for a 1000 photos. dont know what shes doing now that all the pictures being taken are digital.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

the hiker wrote:

all the pictures I took when I was in the U S Navy... (show quote)

I had a little over 1,000 slides scanned onto disks. Nice job - very clean. However, I noticed the other day that some slides were backwards - reversed. Maybe I had them in the slide holder/carousel reversed. It was easy switching them back.