Just like everybody else I have hard drives full of digital images. And in spite of my surname I have a squirrel-like tendency to backup these images from old hard drives to new hard drives, hiding the old ones in lofts and other dark places just in case. But this is no good. I started making photographs when film was the main way to record still images. Back then you had to print them to see them. It took time.
A while ago I bought a film camera from a guy on Anglesey. When I went to his place to pick it up, he told me he had just lost his father. As we were sitting and chatting out came the trusty old biscuit tin, repurposed and crammed with family photos, including some of his dad. What are the kids and grandkids of the young today going to do when their loved ones pass on? Trawl through tens of thousands of digital images to find those special moments or a simple portrait? They will have no biscuit tins. They may not even have hard drives, only clouds.
Photographs of my personal life will not be found here, but I shoot to print. You may be here looking at the digital versions of my work, but almost all of these photographs have been printed and are in boxes somewhere, under beds, on top of cupboards or in some other dark places. And those that aren’t will be soon.
Where do you keep your memories?
Here’s a guy with a great perspective on this subject…
Me, on a piece of glass using the wet plate collodion process.
