I was looking in my files for a particular photograph
today and was shocked to see how many I have on my computer.
Time was, with a Canon point-and-shoot, I had to make
every shot count because of the expense of having the film developed. Taking a
dozen shots of the same object or view on my phone makes ensuring I get one
good one easy. I also have a large plastic tub of photographs. Every winter, I intend
to go through them to sort them out to create a history for my family,
especially as, at some point, if I haven’t curated them, no one else likely
will. In that eventuality, someone will have to dispose of them.
We started a new photograph album for a specific year
or family holiday in the good old days. We missed some years because we didn’t
have a camera and only splurged on the Kodak instant cameras for special occasions.
Photography in my family was a bit hit-and-miss until my dad took it up as a
hobby. He started with a Canon but soon added an Agfa because he became
fascinated with slide photography and thought it was the better camera for that
format.
On one visit to my family, my children and I decided to go out
for the day on a Bank Holiday, but typically, it poured with rain. It was the
perfect time to sort through my parents’ boxes and boxes of photographs and
slides. We decided that if we didn’t know who was in a photograph or where it was
taken, then it was discarded. With the help of a couple of bottles of wine and
lots of memories and laughter, we reduced the total by two-thirds, but we came
across some absolute gems.
I take a lot of photographs as part of my research for
books. It doesn’t matter if it’s my historical or contemporary books. A legend
board here, a costume there, a vista that I don’t want to forget. It is far
easier to take a photograph and refer to it later than to write notes on the
information and my impressions.
Legend board in the Lagg Distillery, Arran 
Rogers Pass, Canada
Museums often permit visitors to take photographs without
the use of flash photography. I recently visited the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London, England and took many pictures in the Jewellery and Ceramics rooms.
These were purely for my enjoyment, but I have shared some of them, too. One of
the most fun museums I visited was the Costume Museum in Bath, where my
daughter and I tried on a variety of hats.
Thankfully, my daughter likes to keep the old sepia
family photographs, so there will be a home for those. But for the rest of
them, well – they keep some memories alive for now.
How do you keep your family memories alive?
Victoria Chatham
NB: photographs from the author's collection
