"The abilty to induce this excitement is worth the making of every, and any photograph in the world."
I think I have reconsiderd that view.
Making the bed today, I happened to glance at a photograph of my two kids, into the sides of which frame I have slid two tiny images: one of myself as a child of about eight, a snap from a Brownie, that my mother had sent to my cousin and which he, a few years ago, found and returned to me; the other, one of only two remaning copies of my wife's International Driving Permit picture. I remember shooting it; she was about forty. A couple of other Kodachromes from the year dot have been put onto the website, and that's it: no negatives survived, just a couple of the 'chromes.
I'd save them now above anything else in my possession.
Rob