the legacy of digital files...
This was posted a while ago, and was in response to file formats and programs like Aperture2 having significance in a truly archival context- that is, what are our ancestors going to make of all this? (emphasis is mine...)
Here’s one take on your question, which is, of course, quite valid. Not only for those of us using Aperture but for all photographers in the digital era.
With the floodgates of digital imagery having been opened the game of archiving has changed. Since digital images are so easy to story they are also very easy to destroy. It won’t take some change in format to destroy my images after I’m gone. It will simply require that no one cares enough for my images to preserve them. If that is the case then it won’t matter what format my images are in, JPG, TIFF, XMP sidecars, whatever. Somebody just hits the delete button when no one can be found who gives a damn about my pictures.
On the other hand, if I have images that are actually of value, that have stood out from the tsunami of imagery washing over everyone, then those images might just have a chance of survival. If my stock agency is making money off of them then they’ll continue to update them because it’s profitable. If I have images of documentary value, then I can hope to put them in some public archive at some point during my life, with some hope that their growing historic value will keep them alive.
I’ll not beat that tack further because I think you can see where it is going. That is the new world we live in. If you want your pictures to truly last, then you have to make sure you give them a real, lasting life while you are still alive. If not, it won’t matter if they are in pixels or Kodachromes in slide mounts; somebody somewhere in the future is likely to find them just burdensome (and useless) enough to throw them away.
Just one personal view on the problem. Now I have to get some pictures out the door.
by Jim Richardson | 20 Feb 2008
Here’s one take on your question, which is, of course, quite valid. Not only for those of us using Aperture but for all photographers in the digital era.
With the floodgates of digital imagery having been opened the game of archiving has changed. Since digital images are so easy to story they are also very easy to destroy. It won’t take some change in format to destroy my images after I’m gone. It will simply require that no one cares enough for my images to preserve them. If that is the case then it won’t matter what format my images are in, JPG, TIFF, XMP sidecars, whatever. Somebody just hits the delete button when no one can be found who gives a damn about my pictures.
On the other hand, if I have images that are actually of value, that have stood out from the tsunami of imagery washing over everyone, then those images might just have a chance of survival. If my stock agency is making money off of them then they’ll continue to update them because it’s profitable. If I have images of documentary value, then I can hope to put them in some public archive at some point during my life, with some hope that their growing historic value will keep them alive.
I’ll not beat that tack further because I think you can see where it is going. That is the new world we live in. If you want your pictures to truly last, then you have to make sure you give them a real, lasting life while you are still alive. If not, it won’t matter if they are in pixels or Kodachromes in slide mounts; somebody somewhere in the future is likely to find them just burdensome (and useless) enough to throw them away.
Just one personal view on the problem. Now I have to get some pictures out the door.
by Jim Richardson | 20 Feb 2008
posted by Ted Dillard at
10:47 AM
1 Comments:
Best answer to a stupid question I ever got!
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