The Most Important Photographs

The Most Important Photographs

If we move forwards in time say just 30 or 40 years, which of our images will still be looked at? Which will carry forwards for the future to enjoy. My thought is that it won't be the competition images or the Photoshop manipulations, but it will be the pictures of people. The modern equivalent of all those black and white pictures stored in an old battered suitcase and kept under the bed. Well as long as they are annotated with a brief description of who they are, and preferably when they are, then they are a valuable historic record. Whoever starts to make the family tree again some years hence will appreciate them, and older family members will be happy to explore them time and again.

They are a little more ephemeral these days, stored as they are on hard drives and in the cloud, and I'm not sure how long those things will remain accessible, so maybe the answer is that we should make photo books. A book can stay on a shelf and doesn't need batteries or compatible software to view it, so there are real advantages.

I'll share a few family photos, dated where possible, that show the sort of images that I believe need preserving.

My Mum and her sister, probably around 1940



In later years, the two of them (positions reversed) 2015



Riley siblings 1930s



Wartime image of my Granny, my Mum, her sister Denise and friends



My Dad, 1950s



Me with Frankie Valli, 1975



Sue, 1960s



My other Granny, late 1800s



My Scottish Great Aunts, 1930s



We have hundreds of pictures, many of them on my website, and we have made notes on every one that we could identify. I guess I've just found a project to up the pace with during Lockdown.