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Author Topic: Another small death of photography.  (Read 767 times)

Redcrown

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Another small death of photography.
« on: August 31, 2022, 11:57:09 am »

For about 20 years, I hosted foreign exchange students in the US and did volunteer work for exchange organizations. That led to doing a lot of senior portraits. The trading of senior "wallet" photos was a US only tradition, so exchange students had to have the tradition explained to them. Most loved it and thought it was cool.

My last exchange student was 14 years ago, and then I "aged out" of the system. But this year I did a senior portrait session for the son of a friend. When we talked about wallet prints, I was told they don't do that any more. I checked around, and it's apparently true. At least in my area. The tradition has died. I suppose that, since the kids have thousands of selfies on their phones, they don't see the need for wallet prints.
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Another small death of photography.
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2022, 04:35:26 pm »

Must be a similar thing for family albums or boxes full of prints.
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Robert

langier

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Re: Another small death of photography.
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2022, 07:35:32 pm »

Same thing with prints in general for many weddings. One I did last year all the couple wanted was the final images which is fine with me and less work. They were climbing the corporate ladder and had little room for paper prints as they were moving to a better abode. I'll archive them for now, but can never guarantee the files will be around in the future.

I explain that the only sure way for the photos to make it to their grandchildren is to have prints made now before the digital files suffer from digital rot due to the ever-marching evolution of technology or the photographer dies with the password to his computer...
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Larry Angier
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Chris Kern

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Re: Another small death of photography.
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2022, 08:33:31 pm »

I explain that the only sure way for the photos to make it to their grandchildren is to have prints made now before the digital files suffer from digital rot due to the ever-marching evolution of technology or the photographer dies with the password to his computer...

Some years ago, I had an extended conversation with a representative of the U.S. National Archives—spoiler alert: no purloined TOP SECRET documents were involved—about how best to preserve the audio archives of the Voice of America.  We had an enormous number of 11-inch reels of magnetic tape, more than we could continue to store, and I wanted to know if the government's archivists wanted to preserve their contents as part of the historical postwar record.  Yes, indeed, he said, but there was an issue of whether we could transfer them to a physical medium that would survive for the long term.  I proposed that we re-record the contents of the tapes onto CDs or DVDs, but the expert assured me that after 100 years it would be difficult to find surviving electronic machinery to play either of those formats and, in any event, the plastic would deteriorate so badly over time that the recordings would be unretrievable.  I asked what physical medium would provide the best longevity.  "Well, the optimal medium would probably be 78-rpm discs," he said.  I assumed he was joking, but he explained that the indentations in the grooves would not be subject to deterioration and that antique mechanical players for 78-rpm records would certainly be available a century or more in the future—and, if not, it would be trivial to construct them.
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