Bohica Loc: SE Coast of NC

Not sure if this is right forum but here goes. I have pics of my parents 80 yrs ago, my Grandparents even older. Modern photographic paper for computer printers list 20 yrs max and experience tells me that is optimistic. Are my Grandkids going to have pics of me? We still have tintypes and albumen prints from over a hundred years ago. Are future generations going to be limited to recent history?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

They'll have whatever digital files you properly tag with keywords, file names, folders; and transmit to them in a reasonable pixel resolution, particularly images you have edited and culled from the larger inventory of images. If instead you just plan to dump a few gems inside of a dumpster of your unedited and unculled digital files, your offspring will effectively receive and save nothing. If you can't find your best images, you have no best images.

srt101fan

How true it is!

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Paul, I think that if we want our images to move forward into the future, we need to put them in print form. I collect images from St Joseph photographers and often look in thrift and similar stores. I have never seen an envelope or box with sd or cd cards inside or whatever. Heretofore, photography informed the world not only in the era in which it was created but into the future. Now for all practical purposes it only lasts until someone hits the delete key. What you suggest is feasible for moving personal family images from one generation to another. However, I would be hard pressed to extract images from a floppy disc or a zip drive. Yes, I know it can be done, but who will look at a box of floppies or discs and take the time and spend the money to locate a service to even find out what is contained on them? I'm sure that you have personal family images that you will transfer on to specific individuals, but you also have shared images on this forum which records your Chicago surroundings which I believe to be worthy of existing beyond the present. My concern is how do we move these images, as well as the more personal ones into the future.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The format with the longest proven lifespan is paper. Digital has the promise of long life but it requires maintenance, including upgrading media as technology changes (I almost wrote ‘improves’). To be fair, paper also requires maintenance and it’s harder to update the media.

The jpg format has been around more than 30 years now so it’s probably going to be active for a while.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Put in social media.
Lasts forever.
Best lasting is paper, B&W and silver.
Put in shoe box and should last at least a couple of hundred years.
My oldest family photos that I have are over 120 years old and stored this way.
Some older ones are in books in the libraries of universities of family.
Who knows what will last and what won't. Depends upon the keeper of the photos and do they care.

Dik

Make sure it's an acid-free shoebox!

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Lol

pdsdville Loc: Midlothian, Tx

I firmly believe that many thousands if not millions of family and other photos will be lost, stashed away on some hard drive somewhere, when the owner dies. A lot of history will be lost simply from ignorance. I'm guilty too. I don't print the many thousands of shots I have, but my kids don't seem to place much value in them.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I fear this call for physical printing is a wish for something / someday past that no longer exists. Excluding slides, for decades of the 20th Century (not this 21st), the only way to see / share / save images was to have them printed, both the good and the bad from every roll of film. Those days are long, long gone.

When I spoke earlier about the "transmit" of the images, I meant a) using a digital media that is useful to the receiver and preferably b) getting those images onto the 'active' media used and maintained by the receiver. So, camera cards or legacy disk formats fail this requirement. Rather, the photographer would be expected to do much of the following tasks:

1, Cull and edit all images to transfer.

2, Rename files to descriptive names, but not too 'long', probably just a date, subject and counter - 20230514 Mothers Day 001.

3, Convert all files to a display format (aka JPEG) and a screen filling resolution, 2048px on the long side.

4, Embed all possible and applicable keywords, such as full names of people, the places (city, state, restaurant, etc).

5, Organize all images into relevant folders, not an unorganized dump of "My Pictures".

6, Write a ReadMe document explaining how and what is being shared in this image file transfer. Include your wishes these files 'live on' after you're gone.

7, (Extra) If you have some dream of images ever being printed, consider including 'print ready' files also, in clearly separated folders. Explain the purpose of these additional files in the ReadMe file.

8, Actively discuss and attempt to be physically present when all these files are copied from the transfer media onto the receiver's active media (hard drive).

9, Repeat this transfer to multiple family members in the hope the wider the distribution, the more likely someone will care and keep the files.

10, (Extra) Work with the receiver to execute their own local back-up processing so the newly copied images are incorporated into the receiver's back-up media / archive strategy.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I've given framed prints as gifts. I've decorated a few walls in a few homes with shared images, again printed and framed to work in that decor. I've even helped decorate college housing with framed images. But still, all images combined, that still less than 25 prints total.

This morning, Flickr is telling me I have 13,209 publicly facing images and another 2000+ waiting to be updated to public. Even if 1% might register as my own personal masterpieces, that's still 100+ images I'll never bother to physically print. Alas, no one will ever really care about them, even me.

The quantity is just overwhelming. I'm just one of 8-billion others who have their own thousands of images ....

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Photos of birds, scenery, your cruise etc. will definitely be meaningless and worthless in the eyes of children or grandchildren.
The only photos of any value to future generations will be those of family members with their names on the photo and date and place.
So no need to worry about preserving those bird shots beyond your lifetime or other such photos including all the vacation photos without family in them.
And yes, hard copies in an album with names of the people, dates and locations will be best, usually, but second social media will be the preferred format. Not hard drives or other such storage devices as those will not be utilized and will fail anyway after time.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I save suitably named JPEG files. As long as my heirs occasionally copy these files as I have, they will last. That is up to them.

MrPhotog

I picked up a Canon Selphy 1300 dye sublimation printer and liked it enough to get the Selphy 1500 for my son's family. The original idea was to have this at parties for instant print sharing. The longer life span was an added benefit.

Very simple to use, and a reasonably fast, inexpensive way get 4'x6" family photos that have an expected life of 100 years. Cost per print is about what they were paying for prints at Shutterfly, but should last longer, and they can print these at home, so no shipping costs for small numbers off prints.

In black and white you can look to excellent longevity by using a laser printer and an acid-free 100% cotton or rag paper. There are lots of options on papers, and I don't think the paper is as much a problem as the inks used on it.

I suspect that there will be plenty of pictures that survive for several generations. There are processes currently available that will last a long time without fading, and those will always have a market. Certainly there is hope for even better processes in the future.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Paul, I think this is good plan for digitally transmitting images to specific family members or other individuals. What I am concerned about is transmitting the photographic component of the historical, cultural record of this generation to future generations of scholars or even interested people. In hundreds of repositories across the United States are archival files containing photographic images along with all other kinds records. But these days while an immense number of images are being made, very few will be printed and most of the rest will be deleted. Those remaining will mostly reside in limbo in the "cloud" or on sd cards or various other media. I agree that a large percentage of images are worthy of being culled, but will also note that we do not know what mundane inconsequential photograph created today will illuminate some discussion in the future.